Masters Programs in Health Care 2023 in Oita in Japan

OUNHS established a Health Sciences Master’s major and a Health Sciences PhD course in our Graduate School in 2009 to promote advanced research in non-nurse medical and healthcare professionals. These courses are very unique in universities and colleges of nursing in Japan. They were established for medical doctors, registered dietitians, radiation technologists, pharmacists, medical technologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and health and exercise trainers. The six specialty areas of the Master’s major are Health Physiology; Environmental Health Science; Physical Fitness and Sports Science; Radiological Health Science; Health Informatics and Biostatistics; and Mental Health. Education in the Master’s course is characterized by both day and night instruction, small class sizes, and mentor-group instruction. Two mentors with expertise in the course specialty area supervise student research from an interdisciplinary perspective. Students also receive statistical support and use statistical software such as SPSS, SAS, MATLAB and S-PLUS to process and interpret experimental and survey data. -

Public health nursing is an independent nursing occupation in Japan. All public health nurses (PHNs) are educated as nurses and public health nurses and have licensure as a registered nurse and separate licensure as a PHN. The minimum length of education and training required to receive licensure in Japan is three years for nurses and one year for PHNs. There are various PHN educational programs in Japan, such as graduate school Master’s courses; undergraduate courses; junior college non-degree courses; four-year special training college courses for nurses and PHNs; and one-year PHN schools. Our faculty believes that PHNs should be educated and trained at the graduate level to improve the quality of their practice, so OUNHS was the first school in Japan to establish a Master’s degree PHN course in 2011. -

Midwifery is an independent nursing occupation in Japan. All midwives are educated as nurses and midwives and have licensure as a registered nurse and separate licensure as a midwife. The minimum length of education and training required to receive licensure in Japan is three years for nurses and one year for midwives. There are various midwifery education programs in Japan, such as graduate school Master’s courses; undergraduate courses; undergraduate non-degree programs; undergraduate special courses; junior college non-degree programs; and vocational schools. The current midwifery environment in Japan is characterized by the progression of our declining birthrate, the aging of expectant mothers, a lack of obstetricians, a decrease in parturient facilities, and a concurrent advancement of perinatal medicine and assisted reproductive technology. Therefore, midwives are required to possess advanced diagnostic and practical midwifery skills and the ability to collaborate with other medical professionals including obstetricians. -