“I am a nurse: Color me Exceptional!” Introduction of Japanese version

 By Nozomi Kawabata RN, BSN, MSN, BE, living with * * disorder

I translated this picture book in 2024.

Above illustration of the five nurses is a part of the cover of the coloring book.

この記事は米国の著者、読者とのコミュニケーションのために作っています。

In a nutshell, this is a picture book from the US based on real stories, featuring illustration of more than 20 nurses with various disabilities and diseases working in various clinical settings. The English version was published by Amazon in 2019.

This introductory video (5 min 35 sec) for the coloring book was created by Mameko, a nurse living with ASD and YouTuber.
Click below for the Japanese introductory video for the coloring book
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDIkVCIcrLM&t=5s

For more detailed information about the coloring book, please visit the following Japanese website. It includes the names of the disabilities and diseases that appear in the book, a list of occupations and workplaces where nurses are active in the United States, and Japanese explanations of the nurses who served as models.

 まれかん、障害のある看護師たち - 塗り絵の本

Now, regarding the background of translating this picture book, the author, Dr. Donna Carol Maheady, who is a nurse and nurse educator, a founder
of www.exceptionalnurse.com ( a nonprofit organization supporting nurses and nursing students with disabilities in the United States). She has also published three collections of narratives by nurses with disAbilities. I had to resign from my position as a ward nurse at a leprosy sanatorium due to disability-related issues, and a few months later, while attending a vocational rehabilitation center, I came across these books, which were a great source of comfort to me. I have now completed the translation, but due to various circumstances, the Japanese edition has not yet been published. I am determined to explore ways to utilize the manuscript...

Amidst this situation, we decided to publish this coloring book in Japan first. We hope that creativity and imagination for a society where diverse nurses can play an active role will spread in Japan as well. The original title of the coloring book is “I am a nurse: Color me Exceptional!”, which is the name of the supporting NPO. The word “exceptional” is difficult to translate into Japanese, and there are various translations in the dictionary, such as “rare,” “different from normal,” “unusual,” and “extremely excellent.” However, in consultation with the author, we decided to use only “I am a nurse!” as the title for the Japanese version of the coloring book, with the hope that nurses with disabilities and illnesses will soon be accepted as normal.

One of the title of Dr. Maheady's narrative collection, Exceptional Nurse, has been translated as “rare nurse.” However, in the not-too-distant future, I hope that nurses will become as commonplace as air in a nursing world that does not discriminate against people with disabilities (at least in theory... laugh), and that this project will be completed with the achievement of disability employment rates in the nursing field.

For nurses who are also patients, being able to search in their native language and immediately read stories and thoughts shared by their peers is extremely important, both in their work and in their daily lives. While there are excellent Japanese books and articles written by nurses who are also patients, there is a clear need for more information that is easily accessible online at any time.

Next, we would like to introduce the Japanese website titled “Stories of Nurses with Disabilities” (NPO Health and Illness Narratives DIPEx Japan), which features interviews with 20 nursing students and healthcare professionals aged 20 to 70 who have illnesses or disabilities.(Partial release beginning in 2025) Additionally, this website aims not only to provide information and emotional support for patients and those directly affected but also to serve as a resource for specialized education for healthcare professionals, public lectures, and academic research.

“Narratives of Nurses with Disabilities.” (Japanese Sites)

障害ナースの語りwww.dipex-j.org

In translating the coloring book, we have received advice from Ms. Yoko Setoyama, a nurse who is a representative of this JPN database “Narratives of Nurses with Disabilities.”

Thank you very much for reading this far.
Click here to  go to sales page of JPN coloring book on Amazon.co.jp.

Proceeds from the sale of the book will go to www.exceptionalnurse.com to provide scholarships for nursing students with disabilities.

Additionally, this article was inspired by a series of master's thesis submissions by Ms. Natsuko, a nurse with mid-life visual impairment  who works as a consultation support specialist alongside a guide dog. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Ms. Natsuko for providing the inspiration to begin writing this article.

P.S.
Here is Kawabata's self-introduction in English.

#創作大賞2025

【日本語版】https://www.amazon.co.jp/dp/B0DBR9DVRK

Originally published on No+e: https://note.com/marekan2022/n/nadacd31eed1a

With thanks to Nozomi Kawabata RN and so many others for helping us bring this project to life!

Donna