04 Jun 2010

Celebrating its 15th anniversary, the School of Nursing of The University of Hong Kong Faculty of Medicine proudly commenced the annual flagship event “4th Hong Kong International Nursing Forum” on June 4, 2010. Dr York Chow Yat-ngok, GBS, JP Secretary for Food and Health, gave an opening keynote lecture at the special occasion, which made the two-day event more significant and memorable.

The 4th Hong Kong International Nursing Forum aims to share research and clinical practice among nursing scholars and clinicians and to foster our commitment to providing quality education for practice and disseminating scientific discovery. This year, the Forum has been raised to the international arena with 26 co-organizers from countries around the globe. Prominent overseas nursing leaders were invited to share their experience and insights on nurses’ roles and their contributions in promoting and managing the health of the community, in the context of the health care reform in Australia, Canada, U.K., and U.S.A.. (Appendix I)

In his opening keynote speech titled “Health Care Reform: Nurses as Key Contributors in Promoting the Health in the Community”, Dr York Chow Yat-ngok highlighted that nurses constitute the largest proportion of the health professional workforce globally and locally, and they are key contributors in building a healthy population through health promotion, disease prevention, treatment and rehabilitation. With the ageing population and increase in chronic disease burden, nurses are having increasingly challenging missions nowadays, moving towards more advanced functions in the management of chronic diseases as well as in fostering of patient-centred care and patient empowerment. He stressed that new developments are underway to convert and enhance the function of nursing professionals, and they will continue to be an integral partner in the development of primary care and new models of more comprehensive community care, including the establishment of community health centres. More nurses will be trained in the coming few years, and Hong Kong should continue to strengthen and integrate community-oriented primary care into the nursing curriculum to cater for the changing health needs of the Hong Kong population.

Professor Sophia Chan Siu-chee, Head of School of Nursing, welcomed the speakers and guests who joined the event. She highlighted the achievements of the School in the past 15 years, and the contributions of the School in providing vital undergraduate and postgraduate education to enhance student learning, prepare undergraduates to be competent practitioners, and develop postgraduates to be leaders of the profession. With its expertise, the School is well positioned to embrace the health care reform, in particular the area of primary health care nursing. She added that the School has launched a number of new programmes to meet the increasing health care demand for more highly educated nurses in a society with an ageing population and complex illnesses. These programmes include: a Doctor of Nursing programme to prepare nurses for advanced practice roles in primary care and public health, a new Bachelor of Nursing programme for enrolled nurses, and a Certificate course in Infection Control to meet the growing needs for infection control practitioners. The School has a strong history to promote knowledge exchange and fortify the role that nurses play in the community.

For more details of the 4th Hong Kong International Nursing Forum, please visit the website of the Forum at http://hknf.hku.hk.