JNA News Release2016.August Vol.21

JNA News Release
Japanese Nursing Association
5-8-2 Jingu-mae, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0001, JAPAN

Tel: +81-3-5778-8559

Fax: +81-3-5778-8478

http://www.nurse.or.jp/jna/english/

Kumamoto Earthquake
In Kumamoto prefecture, located in the center ofKyushu region in Japan, earthquakes with a maximum

Kumamotomagnitude of 7.0 occurred on April 14th and 16th. The
major

earthquakes

werefollowedbysensible

aftershocks for a prolonged period of time and theseries
Tokyoofearthquakes

andaftershocks

havesignificantly affected many areas within the prefecture.
The number of evacuees forced to stay in evacuation
centers or to use their car as a shelter raised to 180

Disaster Relief Nurse

thousandis a nursing professional who supports
nursing professionals in affected areas
and ensures adequate healthcare/nursing
services for people in the areas in order tosincecollapsed/partially

theirhouses

damagedorweretotally

evacuation

wasadvised/ordered.
Soon after the occurrence of the disaster, JNA

sustain their health.

established the Task Force for Disaster Response andDisaster Relief Nurses are registered atDr. Suga Sakamoto, JNA president, was assigned as

theirNursing

the director of the task force. Initially, KumamotoAssociations. Currently, the number of

Nursing Association coordinated the dispatching oflocal

Prefecture

those registered, including Public Health
Nurses, Midwifes, Nurses and AssistantNurses, is 7,771 as of March 2015.

Disaster Relief Nurses to evacuation centers within theprefecture by the request from Kumamoto prefecturalgovernment. Subsequently as the number and extentof the requests grew, JNA initiated to coordinate the dispatching. As the support for this disaster, JNAand Prefecture Nursing Associations implemented the dispatching of 1,963 Disaster Relief Nurses intotal from 16 Prefecture Nursing Associations to 32 evacuation centers within the prefecture and thedispatching period was stretched to approximately 2 months.
In general, each Disaster Relief Nurse is dispatched to and stationed in evacuation centers for 24hours for 4 days and 3 nights and implement the following activities: environmental maintenancewithin evacuation centers, nursing care for the injured with minor wounds, prevention of economyclass syndrome particularly for people sleeping in their cars. The dispatching of Disaster Relief Nurses
enabled protection of life and living among people affected by the disaster with a perspective uniqueto nursing.

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Disaster Relief Network System
When a large-scale natural disaster occurs, depending on the scale of its impact, JNA or Prefecture
Nursing Association in affected areas coordinate the dispatching of Disaster Relief Nurses. Particularly
when the scale of the disaster is beyond the response capacity of Prefecture Nursing Association in
affected areas, the dispatching process described in the diagram below is applied and JNA is involved in
the coordination of the dispatching.

Message from JNA president:
After the occurrence of the disaster in Kumamoto prefecture, we have received
warm messages and support from many of you and we greatly appreciate. Even
though activities by Disaster Relief Nurses came to an end within the prefecture,
there are still issues and challenges remaining for the process of reconstruction andrecovery in the affected areas. We sincerely pray that people in the areas will regain
a sense of security and normality in their lives as soon as possible. We as JNA willcontinue to strengthen the collaboration with Prefecture Nursing Associations anddisseminate an understanding of disaster nursing in order to deliver and implement
effective nursing support activities at the time of a disaster in the future.

For further information on Disaster Relief Nurse, please refer to our official English website (JNAActivities > Disaster Relief Activities).
http://www.nurse.or.jp/jna/english/activities/projects/index.html

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Annual General Convention was HeldOn June 7th and 8th, JNA held its annual
JNA Priority Policies

general convention for the fiscal year 2016 inChibaprefecture.

Theconvention

wasattended by 5,594 representatives and JNA
members in total combining for the 2 days.
As the invited guests for the convention, Mr.
Yasuhisa Shiozaki, Minister of Health, Labourand Walfare, Mr. Kensaku Morita, Governorof Chiba Prefecture (Mr. Hiroyuki Kawashima,Priority policies for this fiscal year are thefollowing, which are the same as previous
year to deal with ongoing critical issues.
 Establishment and Promotion of thecommunity based integrated caresystem

Enhancement of positiveenvironments for nurses

Promotion of the role expansion ofnurses

Development of nursing humanresources capable of meeting theneeds of the super-aged society withfewer children

Deputy Executive Director of Health andWelfare Department, attended by proxy), andMr. Toshihito Kumagai, Mayor of Chiba City,
delivered congratulatory addresses. Also,practicefrom International Council of Nurses (ICN), Dr.

and expectation of the society toward nurses

Masako Kanai-Pak, the First Vice-President

and therefore JNA calls for the radical reform,of ICN, attended. At the convention, priority

aiming to make the length of the basic

policies and main projects for the current

education required for nurses to be 4 yearsi).

fiscalyear

werereportedandactive

discussions were conducted.

Elections to the executive board saw Reiko
Kikuchi re-elected as a Vice President,

During the opening ceremony, Dr. Suga

Kumiko Ii as an Executive Director, Noriko

Sakamoto, JNA president in the last year ofSaito, Toshiko Fukui and Ikumi Nakaita as

her third term, delivered an address, clearlyExecutive Officers. Other JNA executive

stating decisions about JNA’s strategies. As

members were appointed to their respective

one of the specific strategies, Dr. Sakamotoroles, same as previous year, and thenamed a radical reform in the basic education

Executive Board for this fiscal year was

system for nurses and described as follows;formed. As an Executive Officer in charge ofthe number of education hours currently

international

required for the basic education curriculum iscontinue to take over.

affairs,

Ikumi

Nakaita

not sufficient in order to respond to the needsi) Currently, the length of the basic education required for nurses is more than 3 years.
For information on the basic nursing education, please refer to JNA News Release Vol. 13.
http://www.nurse.or.jp/jna/english/news/pdf/2013nr_13.pdf

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JNA News Release2016 Vol.21

Dr. Frances Hughes, CEO of International Council of Nurses, Visited JNA
Dr.

Frances

Hughes,CEOofInternational Council of Nurses (ICN),
visited Japan in April and delivered apresentation on healthcare workers indanger at one of sub-sessions in theGlobal Conference of Parliamentarians on
Population and Development toward the2016 G7 Ise-Shima Summit.
During her stay in Japan, Dr. Hughes
visited the JNA headquarters together
with Dr. Masako Kanai-Pak, the First ViceFrom the left, Dr. Masako Kanai-Pak (ICN First VicePresident), Dr. Kumiko Ii (JNA Executive Director), Dr.
Frances Hughes (ICN CEO), Dr. Ikumi Nakaita (JNAExecutive Officer) and Dr. Suga Sakamoto (JNA President)
at the JNA headquarters.

President of ICN, on April 25th. They
exchanged information and opinions withDr. Suga Sakamoto, President of JNA, andother JNA executive members. Dr. Hughes

explained about the progress of recent ICN activities and future plans from a wide range ofperspectives. She also indicated that ICN will work on the implementation of its activities and plans,
while clarifying and understanding JNA’s expectations toward ICN. Dr. Sakamoto stated that JNA will
expect Dr. Hughes’s active involvement and steady implementation of proposed activities and plans
while appreciating ICN’s efforts so far.

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