Internship
■Administrative Study in Amakusa（2013, Aug.22nd .- Aug.26th）
■Participants
11 students, 4 tutors from HIGO, 3students, 2 lecturers from Sojo University, Guests from Amakusa County and Municipal Pharmacists Association, Administrative officers, Translators
■Purpose
In the field of Health Life Science, leadership is required than ever, which would lead and coordinate the glocal, multiple areas - administration, academy and industry. This internship lets the students attain on-site capability by applying the learnt-skills in the administrative and business seminars, which would promote motivation, responsibility and morality.
■Content
The 1st Day (Aug. 22nd)
Orientation; Dr. Imazato from Pharmacists Association showed us comprehensive view of 'Amakusa'.
The 2nd Day（Aug. 23rd）
Setting off early in the morning, we visited administrative offices (Amakusa City Hall, Public Health Center) and healthcare institutions (hospitals, pharmacies) in Hondo, Reihoku, Ushibuka・Kawaura, Kami-Amakusa area. Divided into small groups, we interviewed staff to grasp the administrative and healthcare reality of local community.
The 3rd Day（Aug. 24th）
・ Morning: Lots of local people kindly cooperated with our survey, conducted to see regional healthcare status quo. Impressive thing to see was the overseas students participating vigorously.
・Afternoon: World Café style workshop was practiced at the Itsuwa-machi Community Center, focusing on 'Features of Amakusa healthcare, Future Prospect and Target'. Based on what's learnt so far, we discussed the theme from diverse points of view - clinical, administrative, and the students' - in small groups, and made presentations.
・Evening: At Amakusa Seaside Hotel, we attended a lecture by Mr. Shozaburo Uemura, Director of Amakusa Medical Center, and enjoyed some exchanges.
The 4th Day（Aug. 25th）
At Amakusa Community Center, the workshop was done dealing with deeper regional healthcare issue, employing ideas and knowledge gotten from the previous days' lecture and talks,.
The 5th Day（Aug. 26th）
After some presentations and discussion at School of Pharmacy, officers from Kumamoto Prefecture and City exhibited healthcare policy.
Overview
Although most students had had only blurred idea about 'Amakusa' and 'local healthcare' at first, after observing the spirited activities of the regional administrative and healthcare staff, and understanding their distinctive features, the students got to become positively involved. Meanwhile, the local people attentively listened to the remarks made by such young students. It was indeed a meaningful
■Students' Voice
・ Through the internship in Amakusa, I learned many meaningful things about community the health care, and realized that the government and medial institution also do their best to improve the situation of health care in Amakusa.
・ We shouldn't stop here, but keep going! People and students from Medicine, Pharmacy, healthcare, administration and local area should work together to get younger students and media involved, which could make a big difference in Amakusa healthcare by the time we manage to materialize the 10th internship of this kind.
・ One attempt is not enough. We should keep actively engaged to solve the problems clarified here. Let's start now for the future.