With the outbreak of COVID‐19, maintaining the healthcare system is a crucial issue. In Japan, the number of COVID‐19 cases is increasing rapidly day by day with a risk of overshooting initial estimations (WHO, 2020a). Public health nurses (PHNs) working in public health centers in prefectures and designated centers in cities or core cities, play a critical role in controlling COVID‐19 (Yoshioka‐Maeda, Honda, Iwasaki‐Motegi, 2020). Providing care for COVID‐19 patients, their families, and the community, the workload of PHNs has been reaching the maximum limit.

Objective: This study aimed to elucidate the experiences of public health nurses (PHNs) in Japan during the first wave of COVID‐19.Design and sample: Twelve PHNs in charge of responding to COVID‐19 in X‐city within Tokyo metropolis in Japan participated in this case study.Measurements: Data were collected through self‐administered questionnaires and semi‐structured interviews on PHNs’ experiences from January 2020 to May 2020.Results: Initially, only infectious disease control division (IDCD) PHNs experienced confusion due to the rapidly increased workload. Managerial PHNs attempted to explain the need for a dispatch system for the IDCD, using available statistical data from other managerial members, within one's maximum understanding of this unprecedented situation. Without having a clear and forward‐looking understanding regarding the purpose and reasons for dispatching, some dispatched PHNs had concerns and frustrations; they did not view the COVID‐19 pandemic as a disaster. In the never‐ending, exhausting work, PHNs managed to modify the provision of conventional services to residents.Conclusions: Despite experiencing confusion, PHNs worked to continuously provide community services, re‐considering the meaning of public health nursing. Prioritizing the work and shifting tasks to other professionals at an early stage of the pandemic may prevent organizational dysfunction.

Most nursing simulation programs focus on persons’ healthcare needs in hospital settings, and little is known about how to identify them in home settings. This study aims to develop and validate a virtual reality (VR) simulation program for nursing students to improve their clinical reasoning skills and confidence in assessing persons’ healthcare needs in home settings. We developed a VR simulation program based on a literature review and expert discussion. In Phase 1, home visit nurses or public health nurses will validate the program through their interviews in 2022. In Phase 2, we will conduct a pilot and main single-blinded randomized trial for nursing students to confirm the effectiveness from 2022 and 2023. Participants will be randomly allocated into an intervention group using VR simulations and a control group receiving videos regarding three kinds of community residents’ lives [1:1]. After obtaining informed consent, the students will submit their anonymous data to the researchers to prevent associating their grade evaluation. The primary outcome will be their clinical reasoning skills. The second outcome will include their satisfaction and self-confidence. This study will examine the effectiveness of improving their clinical reasoning skills and confidence in assessing persons’ healthcare needs in home settings.

This article describes the evaluation of an innovative nursing education curriculum project, preventive home visiting practice, which began full implementation in 2015, in terms of students' learning outcomes. For the purpose of learning how elder persons live in community, all the 327 undergraduate nursing students, from freshmen to seniors, provided monthly or bi‐monthly visits to home‐dwelling elderly persons aged 75 or above in their home over 1 year period, in order to provide support for their independent living and to learn from them. The students' reports submitted at the end of the first academic year were qualitatively analyzed to evaluate what they learned. They acquired multiple perspectives for understanding elder persons, including a variety of individual and environmental aspects of wellness, prevention, and community life. They also acknowledged the importance of team practice through working and collaborating with different grade levels and generations. Overall, the observed learning contents were useful for future nursing education with elder persons and facilitating critical changes in nursing education systems to address the problems of aged society.