Kawasaki City College of Nursing

Overview
Kawasaki City College of Nursing is a three-year junior college with a single department of nursing. It was established with the purpose of "teaching and researching advanced knowledge and skills in nursing, as well as fostering capable students who are well- educated, virtuous, and able to contribute to the advancement of social healthcare". In order to achieve the purpose of its founding and mission, the College is endeavoring to improve its educational and research activities as well as its social cooperation and contribution programs in accordance with the policies of its establisher, Kawasaki City. With regard to education, the College suitably organizes the curriculum based on the curriculum design and implementation policy (curriculum policy), and it gives due consideration to students being able to take courses sequentially under the six subject categories from basic and theoretical to advanced and practical. Also, with regard to its grasp and assessment of student learning outcomes, it suitably implements methods such as the “Questionnaire on Goals to Be Achieved by Graduation.” With regard to its endeavors toward its ssocial cooperation and social contribution programs, we can conclude that the College is producing steady results while making improvements based on the needs of the local community through a variety of courses in nursing, medical care, and welfare as well as activities in collaboration with Kawasaki City and local medical institutions. In particular, with the Lifelong Learning Support for Nursing Staff course on the subject of comprehensive community care and the Research and Training in Nursing program in collaboration with the Kawasaki Nursing Association, the College provides oportunities to nurses from various local institutions for continuous learning throughout their careers and learning from one another, and has also been well received by the participants. Moreover, with its local disaster prevention initiatives, the College provides the local community with knowledge and skills in disaster preparedness and response as a municipal junior college of nursing open to the public by holding extension courses and participating in joint evacuation drills in cooperation with the local government. Furthermore, regarding the employment situation of its students, the College has achieved a high employment rate for its graduates as local Kawasaki City nurses. It is highly commendable that the College contributes to local healthcare by means of its social cooperation and social contribution programs as well as s suitably returning the fruits of its education and research to the community. 1 On the other hand, concerning internal quality assurance, the College is having difficulty improving its system as we also indicated in the previous certified evaluation and accreditation, and it cannot be said that the system is functioning sufficiently. Although the “Assessment Committee” and the “Project Management Conference” have established a system for promotion under the governance of the president as the responsible organizations, the role and authority of the "Project Management Conference" in internal quality assurance is not stipulated in the College's regulations. Moreover, improvements are needed as the framework in which the Project Management Conference provides support leading to substantive improvement and progress based on the accreditation results is insufficient. In addition to this, we would like to see improvements made with regard to the following: the names and descriptions in the degree award policy (diploma policy) vary according to the medium in which they are published, some subjects have insufficient descriptions in the syllabus of class content and teaching methods as well as methods and standards for assessing academic achievement, and finally, with regard to the selection of entrants, the disclosure of information to prospective students concerning the College's method of choice by which schools make admission recommendations is insufficient. Although accounts can be found throughout the submitted "Check and Review Report" that indicate it would like to solve the challenges faced by a junior college by reorganizing itself into a four-year university, we expect the College to clarify the organizational framework which promotes its internal quality assurance system and endeavor till the end in improving its initiatives as a junior college.
Notable Strengths
Social Cooperation and Contribution ● As a junior college rooted in the community, the College is actively endeavoring in its social cooperation and contribution programs in collaboration with various related organizations while considering the needs of the local community. In addition to its endeavors to make the most of the specialized human resources of a junior college— for example, holding extension courses on the subject of disasters, conducting joint evacuation drills in cooperation with the local government, and supporting lifelong learning for nursing professionals—the College is endeavoring to reinforce cooperation with municipal hospitals so that its students can become capable graduates who contribute to the community even after graduation, and it is producing steady results, such as increasing the number of participants in extension courses and the majority of its graduates finding employment within Kawasaki City. These endeavors have led to contributions to local healthcare and returning the fruits of its education and research to the community, and are commendable for realizing the mission the College holds as a junior college to "foster capable students who are able to make significant contributions to the local community as members of its healthcare team".
Suggestions for Improvement
Internal Quality Assurance ● The college has built a framework for internal quality assurance around the Assessment Committee and the Project Management Conference, and although each committee plays a set role, the organization that bears the responsibility for promoting internal quality assurance is not stipulated in its regulations. Even in the regulations of the Project Management Conference, which in fact plays a central role, the College does not specify that said conference is responsible for internal quality assurance. Moreover, in its process for improvements and progress based on accreditation results, the results discussed at said conference are merely shared with faculty and committee members, and improvements are needed as its support for actively connecting those results to improvements and progress is insufficient.