Toshio Ohyanagi, PhD¹, Kazuko Saeki, PhD, RN, PHN², Miyoko Uza, PhD, RN, PHN³, Hisako Izumi, MSN, RN, PHN⁴, Masami Ohno, BS, RN, PHN², Mika Okura, MN, RN, PHN², Minako Funatsuki³, and Terumi Yokomizo, BS, RN, PHN⁴. (1) Department of Liberal Arts and Sciences, School of Health Sciences, Sapporo Medical University, South1 West17, Chuo-ku, Sapporo, 060-8556, Japan, 81-11-611-2111, ohyanagi@sapmed.ac.jp, (2) Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, Kanazawa University, 5-11-80 Kodatsuno, Kanazawa, 920-0942, Japan, (3) Department of Community Health Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of the Ryukyus, 207 Uehara, Nishihara, Okinawa, 903-0215, Japan, (4) Department of Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Sapporo Medical University, South1 West17, Chuo-ku, Sapporo, 060-8556, Japan

We have been developing a distance continuing education program for public health nurses (PHNs) working for health centers in Japan. One of the features of the program is to use video-telephone for the follow up and plenary meetings. This paper presents our study on use of video-telephone in the program. We surveyed video-telephones currently available in Japan first and then three different types of video-telephone, POTS-based, ISDN-based and IP-based, were tested. As of 2003, we concluded that the ISDN-based one is the best for our purpose. We set up the video-telephones and some peripherals at three universities and related three health centers. The locations of six sites were spread from the north to the south of Japanese archipelago. We had more than one hundreds of video conferences of peer-to-peer connection, and also conducted video conferences by connecting multiple sites for three times. We were certain that using the video-telephone system was effective for our program and made PHNs working for the health centers being relieved and satisfied. We noticed that the video conference by connecting multiple sites probably has a potential for making the distance continuing education program more reliable and effective.

Learning Objectives: At the end of this session, the participant will be able to

• Describe characteristics of three different types of video-telephone and a way of integrating the video-telephone with some peripherals for distance continuing education.
• Identify the effectiveness of video-telephone use in the distance continuing education program for PHNs in Japan.

Keywords: Public Health Nursing, Technology

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.