Source: News Centre, School of Nursing
Written by: Qin Xin
Translated by: Chen Zhiyong
Edited by: Wang Dongmei

On May 11, the eve of the 101st International Nurses Day, the launching ceremony of the serial events to celebrate the centennial of SYSU nursing education and the International Nurses Day free diagnosis activities were held on Yingxiong Square in Yuexiu District. Faculty of Medical Sciences, Bureau of Affiliated Hospitals Administration and School of Nursing, along with eight affiliated hospitals of SYSU set up stands and offered free diagnosis services. Over 200 nursing students renewed their Nightingale Pledge. Wang Jianping, Executive Vice President of SYSU, attended and addressed the ceremony. Cheng Shouzhen, Vice Chairman of Chinese Nursing Association; Liang Dingjia, Vice Chairman of Guangdong Nursing Association; Xie Wen, Dean of School of Nursing; Zhang Yuanquan, Secretary of School of Nursing; Qin Huiying, Director of SYSU Nursing Committee; and nurses from eight affiliated hospitals participated in the activities.

About 50 nursing specialists from eight affiliated hospitals formed 12 specialty nursing units, promoted first-aid knowledge and demonstrated first-aid operations, attracting many interested citizens. “The nurses here are very professional and patient,” said Ms. Wang, who was asking for advice on nursing during pregnancy. Her husband and mother-in-law were also happy with the service.

"The duties of nurses are much more than giving injections and handing out drugs,” said Xie Wen, Dean of School of Nursing. She believed that the duties of nurses have extended from the functional mode of following the doctor’s prescriptions and instructions to the responsibility mode of providing holistic nursing centered on humanistic care. Nurses are more focused on applying professional knowledge and skills, fulfilling nursing obligations of providing professional care, medical observation, treatment, mental support, health education and recovery guidance. Nurses with high academic degree can even work in out-patient departments, provide regular clinic services in communities and hospitals; their influence is extended from individual patients to family and community.

In 1913, the Senior Nursing School of Boji Hospital was founded. In 1925, the Nursing and Midwifery School was established in the Affiliated Hospital of Medical School of Sun Yat-sen University; in 1953, the Affiliated Health School of Sun Yat-sen Medical School was set up. Since the establishment of the School of Nursing in 1998, the nursing major has been gaining on level and expanding in size. Through years of exploration and reform, the three levels (college education, undergraduate education and postgraduate education) and two types (general education and adult education) form a multilevel and comprehensive nursing education system. From 2000 on, the School of Nursing has been enrolling Master’s candidates in nursing, and in 2001, the Enterostomal Therapist School of Sun Yat-sen University, the first standardized enterostomal therapist school in China, was founded; from 2004 on, the School of Nursing has been enrolling doctoral candidates in nursing; in 2005, the specialty of Nursing at SYSU became a brand specialty of higher education institutions in Guangdong; in 2010, it became a featured specialty of undergraduate education in Higher Education Institutions of the Ministry of Education; in 2011, it became a first-grade program authorized to award doctorate degree in Nursing in China; and in 2012, the discipline of Nursing at SYSU became a Guangdong provincial key discipline.