Seven students and one faculty member from the Faculty of Nursing from the Royal Prince of Songkhla University (PSU) in Thailand were invited to the Faculty of Nursing, Fukuyama Heisei University (FHU) for eight days from Monday, February 10 to Monday, February 17, and participated in the Sakura Science Program Course C (Science and Technology Training Course)

【February 12】

After a courtesy visit to the president and an introduction to the Department of Nursing, an exchange meeting was held with 1st ~ 3rd year students of the Department of Nursing. The meeting was held in a grand manner highlighted by PSU students performing Thai dances in traditional costumes and FHU students singing "Koinobori," "Snow," and "365 Days of Paper Airplanes.” In the afternoon, a lecture was given on the current state of disaster nursing in Thailand and Japan, followed by a question-and-answer session. Since Japan is prone to disasters, the Thai group was surprised that everyone was preparing for disasters on a daily basis.

【February 13】

"Training using the critical care model (adult)" was conducted by the field of adult nursing team. In addition, we performed an emergency method using a triangular width to confirm the difference between the Thai and Japan methods. Then we visited the fire station in Ekiya in the afternoon.

【February 16】

After visiting the Itsukushima Shrine in Miyajima, Hatsukaichi City, which is a World Cultural Heritage Site, the students learned about the peace education by visiting the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

In the program, we conducted exercises using the current state of disaster nursing in Thailand and Japan and the first aid model and learned about the commonalities and differences between each country. The Thai nursing students were impressed with Japan's advanced equipment, disaster management system, and firefighter training through presentations, a tour of the fire station, and disaster nursing training at the hospital. In addition, since there are many disasters in Japan, people in Japan in general are keener to prepare themselves for disasters compared with the people in Thailand.

Cultural exchanges were made through Thai folk dances and making of "mizuhiki". Since there are few opportunities to communicate in English, our students felt strongly the need for learning the language.

Finally, we would like to express my gratitude to the students, faculty and staff of Fukuyama Heisei University who helped this program, and to the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) and the Sakura Science Program for giving us this opportunity.