Yaju, Yukari

　Statistics is the study of scientific methodology involved when handling quantitative data, and is broadly divided into descriptive statistics (quantitative data are organized to represent certain characteristics or conditions of a group to find possible tendencies and problems), and inferential statistics (quantitative data are obtained from a sample group of a population with the purpose of inferring the presence of certain characteristics or tendencies in the population from the sample group). Florence Nightingale, who is known as the founder of present-day nursing, was also a renowned statistician, and used descriptive statistics to show how improvement of the sanitary conditions in the hospital reduced the death rate among patients.
　The field of statistics also includes biostatistics (methods involved in the design and statistical handling of clinical and epidemiological studies), and mathematical statistics (further development into the field of mathematical theory).
　To analyze the quantitative data obtained from research studies performed in the fields of clinical nursing, community nursing and other nursing care-related fields, it is necessary to have knowledge of descriptive statistics, inferential statistics, as well as biostatistics. Even if you are not a researcher yourself, it is also necessary to have a knowledge of statistics and biostatistics to properly understand and interpret health statistics reports and quantitative study results.
　The educational activities of this department are intended to assure the proper application of and familiarity with statistics and biostatistics as pertaining to nursing.