Mie Prefecture set to start scholarship program for foreign nursing students

Mie Prefecture has finalized plans to provide scholarships to nursing students from foreign countries, the first such scholarship program in Japan.
The plan, which will commence at the beginning of fiscal 2009, will provide scholarships for tuition at universities such as the Mie Prefectural College of Nursing, and over 10 nursing vocational schools in the prefecture. An initial budget of 3 million yen will be earmarked for the program, subject to the approval of the prefectural assembly.
The program was created to address the problem of communicating with members of Mie Prefecture's many foreign communities. Medical facilities currently lack sufficient numbers of interpreters to communicate with patients who cannot speak Japanese, and the program is designed to help train medical professionals who can provide those patients with technical explanations in their mother tongue.
At present, the prefectural international affairs office sends volunteer interpreters to medical facilities that cannot communicate with their foreign patients. Such volunteers have been dispatched 24 times in fiscal 2008, as of Jan. 27. "People who can do interpreting at medical institutions are essential," the international affairs office said. "We hope that this scholarship will be used to give nursing students a good career."
The scholarship program will provide up to 600,000 yen for tuition to foreigners wishing to study nursing. After completing the scholarship program, recipients will be required to take up fixed-period employment with medical facilities in the prefecture, with proficiency in their mother tongue as a prime requirement. The program has targeted seven languages, including Portuguese, Spanish and English.
At the moment, there are no foreign nursing students in the prefecture to enter the scholarship program. However, the prefecture aims to lure prospective students to Mie's schools with the new policy.
"It's a good idea to support foreigners who harbor hopes of becoming a nurse here, and there's also great value in training people who can do medical interpreting," said Shinobu Ogawa, executive director of the Japanese Nursing Association.
Some 2।7 percent of Mie Prefecture's population is made up of foreigners, the third highest rate in the country.
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