Last month, Provost Alex Johnson, Dean Inez Tuck, Assistant Professor John Wong, and I spent three days in the Shenzhen region of China meeting with the leadership of three hospitals about establishing relationships that could eventually create opportunities to send students to the institutions for clinical experiences, develop faculty research collaborations, and host visiting scholars from China.
We visited the Shenzhen Baoxin Hospital, the Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat Sen University, and the Nan’ao Peoples Hospital. The visits were set up by Dr. Wong, an assistant professor in the School of Nursing who has a long history of collaboration with these three institutions.
We began our three-day visit at Shenzhen Baoxin Hospital, a moderate-sized long-term rehabilitation and tertiary-care facility started by a family over 20 years ago, where we witnessed therapy care that was both comprehensive and modern. Patients with debilitating strokes and neuromuscular diseases receive therapy from physical therapists, speech-language therapists, and occupational therapists in addition to medical care provided by nurses and physicians. We learned the therapists are prepared through this program, with their specialization occurring through their clinical experiences.
In addition to Western medicine, patients with intractable pain were treated with traditional Chinese techniques. The hospital has a clinic dedicated to strategies such as acupuncture, acupressure, cupping, and massage, and it has a large unit that provides long-term renal dialysis to patients with kidney failure.
The tour concluded when we participated in a forum on rehabilitation and care of the elderly, sharing our insights on such areas as interprofessional education and practice, person-centered care, and palliative care.
That evening, we had dinner with the administration of Third Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat Sen University. They were very interested in developing a collaboration for their staff and faculty with the IHP to learn more about rehabilitation and health care.
The next day, Dean Tuck, Professor- Wong, and I participated in “Preparing for an Aging Society,” a full-day symposium hosted by Nan’ao Peoples Hospital. This hospital, which is older and more rural than Shenzhen Baoxin Hospital, also is interested in sending people to the IHP and accepting our nursing and rehabilitative-care students.
My first trip to China more than 30 years ago was a life-changing experience – something that would forever change the way I see health care delivery. While the United States’ system has many strengths, it was in China that I first saw a network in which family and community involvement is considered a primary way to recover from and even prevent illness and disease. This dual focus allows them to provide quality health care despite few resources.
Sending students to China, and hosting scholars from these three hospitals, would fit well with the core IHP goal of preparing health care professionals to work with a diverse society. I am confident our highly productive visit will result in collaborative opportunities in the coming years.