Yuka Hashimoto

The purpose of this study was to clarify the effects and learning outcomes of case study meetings for enhancing the practical skills of novice first-year public health nurses. The participants were eight first-year public health nurses who were hired on April 1, 2019. A questionnaire survey was conducted before and after the case study meeting, and a focus group interview was also conducted after the meeting. Of the 36 items in the questionnaire, 28 were analyzed based on the number of individuals in the top quartile who moved from the ‘unable to do’ group to the ‘able to do’ group. Four items improved on the questionnaire, and they were closely related to categories such as [visualizing the process of organizing information and understanding the case], [the steps of assessment make it easier to consider goals and support strategies], and [reaching specific solutions that seem achievable]. The results showed that, after participation, more nurses were able to perform tasks such as “accurately understand the individual’s daily living needs” and “identify the additional information required moving forward to deepen the assessment from a health, medical, and social care perspective ”. From the interview, nine categories of learning were extracted and included [making it easier to organize and for everyone to speak] and [becoming aware of perspectives previously unnoticed]. These findings suggest that following all the steps in the case study meetings can contribute to improving the skills of first-year novice public health nurses in providing individualized support and demonstrating their expertise as public health nurses.