Photo/Illutration Nguyen Thi Phuong, left, receives guidance on working as a nurse from a senior staffer on April 17 in Toyoake, Aichi Prefecture. (Risako Miyake)

TOYOAKE, Aichi Prefecture--Nguyen Thi Phuong decided she wanted to be a nurse when she was in high school in Vietnam, after a family member was hospitalized.

Whereas professional nurses care for recuperating patients in Japan, family members are often responsible for the task in her home country.

Today, that goal has led Phuong, 25, to earn a Japanese nursing license following years of hard work and language study. 

It marks a significant step toward her goal of bringing advanced medical techniques back to her homeland. 

“I will be accumulating experiences in Japan first and foremost so I can help people as well in my homeland at some point in time,” said Phuong.

Starting with learning simpler hiragana characters, Phuong has spent six years studying in Japan.

She is looking to contribute to Vietnam, as the country does not offer a national licensing system for nurses.

START WITH HIRAGANA

Fostering a love for Japanese culture, Phuong dreamed of going to the country as an international student.

Unlike Japan, Vietnam has no nationwide framework to certify nurses. Those working in the profession are simply supposed to complete specialized educational courses for certificates.

Phuong entered Hanoi Medical University and began studying Japanese in July 2017 at the local headquarters of Japan’s Fujita Health University within the Vietnamese school’s campus.

“I started with vowels in hiragana and poured some 12 hours into studying a day,” she recalled.

Passing the Japanese language proficiency test, Phuong arrived in Japan in September 2018. She continued working for an additional six months to refine her linguistic skills further.

Phuong passed the entrance exam of Fujita Health University’s Faculty of Nursing for domestic students, meaning she had to take classes with her Japanese counterparts.

“I could initially understand only about 30 percent of the lessons’ content,” said Phuong.

Reviewing what she learned at the school daily, however, allowed her to keep up with her class in her sophomore year.

TRANSFER HER SKILLS ABROAD

Hanoi Medical University and Fujita Health University in 2017 rolled out their support program for students aspiring to become nursing personnel. The aim is helping them learn Japanese nurses’ techniques for the development of Vietnamese medicine.

Phuong was among those covered under the first round of the initiative. Totaling several million yen (tens of thousands of dollars), her tuition fees, textbook costs, housing expenses and other expenditures in Japan were covered by Fujita Health University.

According to the university, Japanese school operators rarely extend such financial assistance to international students who want to work in their home countries.

“We expect people equipped with the mindset of Japanese nurses will contribute to the development of Vietnamese education, no matter how long it may take,” said Yumiko Miyoshi, head of the faculty of nursing at Fujita Health University, about the program.

The third and subsequent rounds of the supportive initiative were suspended amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, but efforts are currently under way to resume it.

In March this year, Phuong became the only applicant to pass Japan’s national nurse qualification test among the first three students under the assistance project.

“I was so happy that I was close to tears,” Phuong said, referring to the moment her dream came true.

She started working as a nurse at Fujita Health University Hospital in Toyoake in April.

Phuong said she will be doing her best to become a “skilled gentle nurse.”

“Careful medicines and nursing are offered for patients in Japan,” she said. “Learning English, too, I want to become a nurse who can work on a global basis.”

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