“There’s more to geriatric nursing than meets the eye. ”
Biben Fikriana (1st Batch, Indonesia)
Biben gave up his plans to go to Austria and came to Japan as part of the first EPA batch. He mastered Japanese through conversations with patients. After returning home, he earned a master’s degree and began to teach geriatric nursing at a university, while committing himself as the chairperson of an overseas workers’ union with over one million members. He now serves as a representative for West Java in the Regional Representative Council (DPD) of Indonesia for the 2024–2029 term.
Q. Please tell us how you ended up applying for the EPA program.
After graduating from nursing college, I was supposed to get a job in Australia. However, there was a bombing in Bali in 2005, and the Australian government did not give me a visa. A friend told me about the EPA program. They said I did not need to be able to speak Japanese, so I applied. I was selected as one of the 104 nursing candidates out of 1,000 applicants.
Q. Please tell us about your experiences after you arrived in to Japan.
I came to Japan in August 2008 as part of the first EPA cohort. For six months, I received training in Osaka in the Japanese language. Immediately after arriving in Japan, news arrived stating I would receive a three-year visa from Australia. However, I was told that EPA training cannot be stopped in the middle of the program.
From February 2009, I was trained at a hospital in Fukuoka. In the mornings, I accompanied patients to their tests, bathed them, prepared meals and tea, and so on. In the afternoons, I assisted paralyzed patients with bathing, for example.
Q. Are there any patients you will never forget?
There was a woman with dementia who was over 100 years old and bedridden. Every morning I extracted her stool and took care of her body. However, every day when I touched her, she would cry out, “Thief!” So I was confused as to what to do.
Whenever there was time, I would talk with patients. It was a great way for me to learn Japanese, and the elderly people loved it. Two birds with one stone. We talked about things like Indonesia and Japan. A patient I became close with gave me pudding from the hospital’s cafe shop. As we talked, I sometimes noticed things about the patients’ medical condition and reported them to the doctor and the nurse manager. It is a nurse’s job to observe patients closely at all times. When I was going to go back to Indonesia, everyone said to me, “Biben, please don’t leave.”
Q. How did you prepare for the national exam?
Unfortunately, my hospital did not provide enough study support. On weekday evenings, outside work hours, we were given study time, study rooms, and reference books, but there were no teachers, and we did not know what to study or how to study.
Q. Please tell us about what you’ve been doing after returning home.
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I got a master’s degree and teach community and gerontological nursing at Padjadjaran University’s Faculty of Nursing in Bandung. Gerontological nursing is a deep and interesting field. In 2013, I worked on a JICA project and created a training program to improve the skills of Indonesian nurses. Since 2017, I have been a full-time faculty member at the university. I want students to develop their nursing skills. I was put in charge of the international department and am involved in the oral care project of Yuko Hirano (Nagasaki University) and the project (this project) of Michiyo Yoneno-Reyes (University of Shizuoka).
Q. You do social service activities, right?
I also am involved in nursing care for older adults in the community as a volunteer, and am president of the Association of Migrant Workers in Indonesia. There are one million Indonesian migrant workers, but there is also a lot of human trafficking. Some people have been arrested thanks to our investigative work. Many of the victims are women. It’s heartbreaking. I am negotiating with the West Java branch of the Indonesian National Nurses Association to improve nurses’ work conditions. I also consult for two geriatric clinics. Every day is busy but fulfilling.
Q. You are very active. What are your dreams for the future?
I would like to create a care resort for older adults―to start a social enterprise and build facilities for rehabilitation and various activities.
(Interviewed on November 11, 2022)