午夜剧场

While browsing Twitter, I came across an , the Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Advanced Nursing. In this editorial, she reflects on approximately 200 papers related to COVID-19 published to date from her perspective as Editor-in-Chief. Inspired by this, I would like to reflect on three activities I had the opportunity to engage in during the pandemic.

First is the of the Japan Academy of Nursing Science. We requested cooperation from members regarding the impact of the pandemic on their research activities and the support they sought from the academy, receiving responses from approximately 1,500 people. We took a new approach by recruiting researchers from among the members to analyze the data and write papers; as a result, three papers with members as lead authors have been published to date.

Next is an international joint research project involving researchers from 10 countries participating in the Southeast and East Asian Nursing Education and Research Network. We were able to show that while students and faculty at nursing schools in these 10 countries felt the impact of COVID-19 on their education, they were generally satisfied with the new forms of learning. This was an international joint study conducted without any face-to-face meetings, and I learned a great deal from this first-time experience.

Finally, I engaged in information dissemination activities to support staff at elderly care facilities, working with joint researchers specializing in gerontological nursing from the University of Tokyo, Chiba University, and Osaka University. Around April 2020, in the early stages of the pandemic, we collected and translated documents regarding COVID-19 measures in elderly care facilities published by government and research institutions in Japan and abroad, making them available on a website. We also opened a . Although I have worked with these joint researchers on many activities before, the sense of speed in this initiative—driven by the motivation to provide rapid support—was unlike anything I had experienced.

Reflecting on these three activities, I realized they share two common points: 1) the utilization of existing networks, and 2) taking on new challenges. Moving forward, I want to continue taking on new challenges to the extent possible while valuing connections with people in research and education (and perhaps in daily life as well).