Using Teaching and Knowledge to Improve Health of Chinese People

Chinese educators relate the importance of integration of nursing research findings in practice settings. Examples include using established protocols for insertion of intravenous catheters, handwashing practice at the point-of-care, use of safety devices to prevent accidental injury, and teaching patients to assume increased responsibility for monitoring their chronic illness.  Inconsistencies exist in the availability of supplies and equipment to maintain standards which further compromises outcomes of care.    
The stigma of mental illness in the Chinese culture is widespread.  Many students enter nursing education programs with no interest in working within a mental health setting due to this cultural belief.  A lack of community mental health services adds to the difficulty of educating students about the role of nurses in mental health care.  This same situation exists related to the provision of geriatric long-term care and hospice programs.  Chinese nurse educators have limited opportunities to integrate clinical experiences for students in these areas that can promote a change in students’ perceptions.  The use of the only geriatric long-term care facility in Wuhan as a clinical practicum site for health assessment is an example of one way to change students’ perceptions.  Inviting nurses who have opened the only hospice facility in Wuhan as guest lecturers in the students’ classroom is another example.  The upcoming integrating of the comprehensive rehabilitation center and the 5 community clinics affiliated with this center will be another opportunity to enhance student learning. 
Chinese nurse educators discuss their experiences in working with a diverse group of volunteer educators.  In helping to interview, select and orient the volunteer educators who will be at Wuhan HOPE School of Nursing, Chinese nurse educator leaders establish priorities and focus the outcomes of the experience for themselves and the American volunteers. This allows for diversity in this collaborative  exchange process.  Chinese educators discuss changes they have integrated as a result of collaboration: improved test item writing, refinement of the strands of the undergraduate nursing curriculum, use of case studies, integration of evidence-based research findings in classroom presentations, as well as other approaches.