International Understanding among Nursing and Pharmacy Students in Japan

The purpose of this research is to establish a model for assessing interest in international understanding among nursing and pharmacy students in Japan. The study design was a cross-sectional survey of nursing and pharmacy students in their first to fourth years at Josai International University. The International Understanding Scale (IUS2000), consisting of four domains (respect for human rights, understanding international culture, awareness of world solidarity, and understanding foreign languages) with 27 items, was used. A path analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were used to model international understanding. The model of international understanding of nursing and pharmacy students was established as the second-order four-factor mode. The international understanding of nursing and pharmacy students was mainly composed of respect for human rights and awareness of world solidarity and was less affected by understanding foreign languages. Nursing students in our study had a higher international understanding than pharmacy students. International understanding was considered relevant to students’ learning about the importance of interprofessional collaboration as well as their interests in global learning environments for healthcare professionals. The relationship between international understanding and future progress in healthcare performance needs to be studied to show the importance of international understanding education.