Last year, NAON was approached by the president of the Japanese Association of Orthopedic Nurses (JAON) Yoshiko Takeda to suggest a speaker for the group's first annual conference to be held June 30-July 1 in Yokohama, Japan. I was fortunate enough to be offered the opportunity to participate in this endeavor and served as the keynote speaker on "Quality of Care by Orthopaedic-Certified Nurses." I also provided a second session, "Clinical Pathways and Nursing Care for Spinal Surgery Patients."
I left for Japan on a hot Chicago day, only to arrive 15 hours later the next evening in even hotter and more humid Tokyo. At Narita Airport, I was met by a young college student Toshi Sakamoto, who served as my guide and translator for the evening. He escorted me to a bus for the 2-hour trip to Yokohama.
Upon arrival to my hotel, I had 5 minutes to shower, change, and get to the restaurant to meet my hosts. After rapidly getting ready, I set off for the restaurant with my guide. There I met members of the JAON executive board for a traditional Japanese dinner. I must admit I am not a fish enthusiast, but I ate as much of the seven-course meal as possible given that, according to my body, it was 3 a.m. At the dinner, I was informed of the number of registrants, and we reviewed the plan for the next day's meeting. Unfortunately, simultaneous translation was available only during my talks and those of my British counterpart, so I was unable to hear the entire content of the meeting given in Japanese.
The Japanese nurses had begun to collaborate with NAON many years ago, and representatives were present during the Academy meetings in Anaheim (1999) and San Francisco (2001) where they attended the NAON-sponsored allied health meetings. They are very much interested in information on advanced practice roles and in the RNFA role, which I believe is being developed in Japan. They have also developed critical pathways for various orthopaedic surgeries and are interested in comparing their pathways to similar American tools.
Both talks were well-received and, according to the verbal reports given immediately afterward, were evaluated well. I discussed the process of certification in general and the different opportunities available for certification in the US. I also reiterated the number of orthopaedic nurses in the US and the advantages of orthopaedic certification. I included quotations from ONCs who had previously been featured in NAON News. I also described the structure of ONCB and explained test development and content review. Overall, I felt they were impressed by the quality of work of the ONCB.
My second evening in Yokohama provided me the opportunity to meet other members of JAON and the Stryker representatives from Japan, who gave a short lecture on their hip and knee components. It was interesting to note that their components are smaller, geared toward the general size of the Japanese people. I had never considered that cultural aspects should be looked at in terms of development and marketing of devices; it made me think about applying that concept in my own practice setting.
The critical pathway lecture that I provided was followed by a review of Japanese pathways, which in theory are very similar though they do not have the governmental and insurance constraints that we often find in the US. This affords more freedom to provide different care to Japanese patients. The audience appeared concerned that we had such short lengths of stay for many of our complex spinal surgical procedures. I presented President Takeda with a copy of WOrthopaedic Nursing, NAON News, various fliers regarding certification, and the Core Curriculum for Orthopaedic Nursing (3rd edition). She will present them to JAON members and have them available as resources for orthopaedic nursing care.
I am extremely grateful to NAON for suggesting me as a speaker and to the following members of JAON for their gracious hospitality: President Yoshiko Takeda, Hiromatisan, Tomishigesan, Wadasan, Umetsusan, and my translators and guides Sakamotosan and Takayamasan.