Yu Ying wants her journey south to Hong Kong to be "as fruitful" as Xuan
Zang's legendary trek west to India.
The venerable monk in the Tang
Dynasty (AD618-907) brought home many much-needed Buddhist scriptures.
Likewise, Yu, a 31-year-old nurse from the intensive care unit (ICU) of
Guangzhou's First People's Hospital, expects to bring home Hong Kong's holistic
approach to nursing, which she will share with her colleagues in Guangzhou.
Yu, who arrived in Hong Kong earlier this month, was one of the 122
nurses from Guangdong to start a training program in Hong Kong's public
hospitals last Monday.
The 122 trainees from 71 hospitals in Guangdong
were selected from 280 applicants in March.
Yu will be trained at Tuen
Mun Hospital for 10 months.
The scheme is the result of a four-year deal
between Hong Kong's Hospital Authority (HA) and Guangdong's health department.
The agreement was reached in May.
Under the deal, the HA will provide
professional training in 10 departments to Guangdong nurses. The program will
run through 2010.
This year the HA will provide ICU training in
orthopedics and surgery to four groups of nurses.
"The program will help
me experience the nursing culture in Hong Kong, which is quite different from
what we have on the mainland," Yu, an ICU nurse with 14 years' experience, told
China Daily.
Yu added that mainland nurses would simply finish the jobs
assigned to them and then move on.
Yu, who got her nursing degree from
the Polytechnic University of Hong Kong in 2005, said she had learnt that the
physical and mental needs of patients are equally important.
Hospitals
in Guangzhou recently introduced the concept of looking after patients' mental
heath, but "they are not doing it thoroughly enough," she said.
For Yu,
the program is much more than a chance to polish her professional skills. She
sees it as her mission to introduce the holistic approach to nursing to her
colleagues back home, she said.
"When I finish the program, I want to
share with Guangdong nurses how to take better care of patients," she said.
She added that learning and living in Hong Kong were a new experience,
and that she was grateful the HA had given her all the support she needed.
Yu said for many of her classmates, especially those from the more
remote parts of Guangdong, Hong Kong's training system is unique.
"They
have been writing out lists of what they have to remember in Hong Kong, such as
always standing on the right hand side on an elevator," she said.
However, she said her biggest challenge was using English, the language
in which most of the course materials are written.
Yu said that before
coming to Hong Kong, she and her classmates had attended a one-month intensive
English training course in Guangzhou.
She added that she hoped to be
appointed a professional nurse in Guangzhou after the training.
HA's chief
manager (Nursing) Susie Lum, who is also chief supervisor of the program, said:
"Professional nursing training in Hong Kong has an international standard. It is
time for us to take on a training role for mainland nurses."
(China Daily 07/31/2007 page 5)
Questions:
1. Where will nurses from Guangzhou's First People's Hospital train in Hong
Kong?
2. What does Yu Ying want to share with her colleagues when she finishes her
training?
3. What is the biggest challenge for Yu?
Answers:
1. Tuen Mun Hospital.
2. How to better take care of patients.
3. Using English.
（英语点津 Linda 编辑）
About the broadcaster:
Bernice Chan is a foreign expert at China Daily Website. Originally from
Vancouver, Canada, Bernice has written for newspapers and magazines in Hong Kong
and most recently worked as a broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation, producing current affairs shows and
documentaries.
