Department of Nurse Anesthesia continues international collaboration and research in China
The Department of Nurse Anesthesia has developed and fostered collaborations with academic or clinical institutions in China since 2010. Faculty in the department worked with the Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital to develop the first nurse anesthesia education program in China recognized by the International Federation of Nurse Anesthetists in 2015. The department supported them to renew the program for another five years in 2020.
The faculty also provided consultations to Nanjing BenQ Hospital and Xuzhou Medical University and helped them develop the IFNA-recognized nurse anesthesia education programs in China. Up to now, the Department of Nurse Anesthesia has been engaged in all the IFNA-recognized nurse anesthesia education programs in China and will continue to promote the profession in the world.
In fall 2019, the department hosted four visitors from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences, and Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital in China. In 2020, the department planned to accept 10 visitors from Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai Ninth People’s Hospital, Xuzhou Medical University, Tsinghua University and the Third Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University in China, two visitors from the University of Ottawa in Canada, one visitor from the University of Melbourne in Australia and one visitor from the Münster School of Health at Münster University of Applied Sciences in Germany. Due to COVID-19, these visits were delayed. But the department and collaborators are exploring some innovative ways to facilitate virtual visits and enhance the exchange.
In the academic year of 2019-20, the Department of Nurse Anesthesia had seven publications in peer-reviewed journals that were produced from international collaborative research projects. These studies explored the best evidence of different nurse anesthesia practices, such as pre-anesthesia assessment and education, intra-anesthesia patient handover and patient engagement. Additionally, the article “Theoretical Framework of Developing International Partnerships” was published in the Journal of Transcultural Nursing. The framework was developed by department faculty and their collaborators based on general systems theory, recommendations from systematic reviews and their 10 years of collaboration experience. The theoretical framework and real-world example provide a theoretical and empirical base that other teams can use to prepare and develop a pathway for successful international collaborations and partnership in advancing knowledge in health professions.