Author(s)

Masako Kageyama^1*, Taeko Shimazu², Atsuko Taguchi³, Satoko Nagata⁴, Kathy Magilvy⁵

¹Area of Integrated Health and Nursing Science, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine, Suita, Japan.
²National College of Nursing, Kiyose, Japan.
³Department of Public Health Nursing, Division of Health Sciences, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.
⁴Department of Community Health Nursing, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan.
⁵University of Colorado College of Nursing, Denver, USA.

Aim: Nurses must develop good problem-solving skills (PSS) to work in the complex health care environment. This study explored PHNs’ use of analogy in PSS development. The purposes of the study were to clarify how PSS developed in one area (i.e., mental health) could be applied to another area (i.e., maternal health) and whether new PSS could develop in response to PSS gained in another area. Methods: A multiple case study was conducted using interviews. We interviewed 27 consultations from eight Japanese PHNs who consulted in mental health departments before transferring to maternal health departments. The data on how PHNs applied PSS in the selection, mapping, evaluation, and learning stages of the analogy process were extracted from transcribed interviewed data and compared. Results: PHNs provided 59 PSS used in 27 consultations. All PHNs applied past mental health PSS to solve new problems in maternal health. They tended to select past PSS based on structural similarity and to apply PSS via low-level abstraction in serious situations or preventively to avoid causing the current situation to worsen. Notably, PHNs developed maternal health PSS by using past mental health PSS; these new PSS were derived through analogy from various failures and successes. Conclusions: PSS developed in one area can be applied in another area, and new PSS can develop through applying these previous PSS. Identification of structural similarities and preventive analogies must be included in nursing education, especially for nurses working in public health fields.

Analogy, Consultation, Nursing Education, Problem Solving, Public Health Nurse

Kageyama, M. , Shimazu, T. , Taguchi, A. , Nagata, S. and Magilvy, K. (2017) Use of Analogy by Public Health Nurses in Problem Solving for Individual Consultations in Japan: A Multiple Case Study. Open Journal of Nursing, 7, 345-360. doi: 10.4236/ojn.2017.73028.