Facts and figures about Chinese nursing stagger me.
The author recounts his recent visit to Beijing to join in centenary observances of Peking Union Medical College.
HONG KONG, SAR, China—I am on the home leg of a visit to Beijing with my wife, her first to mainland China, and we are having “a relax”—as my Chinese friends endearingly refer to it—in Hong Kong for a day before returning to the rigours of life in the UK. I have to say that Mrs. Watson is very impressed with China, but, as I pointed out to her, I don’t always stay in the Grand Hyatt. We were there courtesy—and extreme generosity—of Peking Union Medical College (PUMC), which was celebrating its centenary. Specifically, I was invited by Liu Huaping, PhD, RN, FAAN, dean and professor at PUMC School of Nursing, with whom I was inducted as a fellow of the American Academy of Nursing in 2007 and with whom I have maintained contact. This was my second visit to PUMC.
Founded by the Rockefeller family in 1917, the college established—with the help of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, USA—a fine medical school, now one of the most prestigious in China. With help from Christian organisations in the United States and the United Kingdom, it also established the first university school of nursing in China. I could not help but reflect on the influence of the Rockefeller family on nursing, as they also established, at the University of Edinburgh, the first school of nursing in Europe. Indeed, descendants of the Rockefeller family were present in Beijing this week.
The history of PUMC School of Nursing is fascinating and was beautifully told by Sonya Grympa, PhD, RN, dean and professor of Trinity Western University, Canada, in her keynote. During the Sino-Japanese war, when Beijing was invaded by the Japanese, the school was closed. Undeterred, the then dean and a handful of staff members undertook their own “long march” and walked to Chengdu in Sichuan Province to re-establish the school. It’s a three-hour flight from Chengdu to Beijing. The nursing dignitaries from around the world who also attended the centenary observance are too numerous to mention, but I was especially pleased to meet Mary Wakefield, PhD, RN, FAAN, former deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and to learn we have many colleagues in common.
The celebration included entertainment by nursing students, a first-rate Chinese banquet, and a morning of speeches and films about PUMC, its history, and distinguished alumni. I came away laden with gifts and brochures, many of which had to remain in my hotel room in Beijing, but I will take home and treasure the panoramic precelebration photograph of nursing dignitaries present at the centenary and a beautiful two-part pictorial history (in Chinese) of PUMC.
Facts and figures related to China and Chinese nursing stagger me. There are more than 900 nursing schools. In 2012, China had 2 million nurses, and now it has 3.5 million. By 2025, they aim to have 7 million nurses, a fraction of what they need to reach the nurse-population ratios of other developed countries. It puts UK nurse shortages—a serious issue, to be sure—into perspective.
As usual, it was not all work. Daniel Liu, my good friend and oftentimes translator in China, took my wife Debbie to see the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. Then Debbie, who now, of course, knows her way around Beijing better than me, took me to see the Olympic Stadium, known now as the National Stadium but affectionately referred to as “the bird’s nest.” My wife is an Olympics nut—ask her any question about it—and I have never seen her so excited.
Next week, we go to Washington, D.C. for the annual meeting of the American Academy of Nursing. At the end of that week, I am back in Hong Kong for another celebration followed by another week in China. RNL
Roger Watson, PhD, RN, FRCP Edin, FRCN, FAAN, professor of nursing at the University of Hull in the United Kingdom and a frequent visitor to Australia and China, where he has visiting positions, is editor-in-chief of Journal of Advanced Nursing and editor of Nursing Open. Click here to access Blogger-resident entries posted before 2017 in Watson’s former blog “Hanging smart.”