Shanghai rolls out nursing care system

A comprehensive nursing care system will be established in all Shanghai hospitals and medical bodies by 2015 to ensure patients receive quality medical care.

The system was announced at the Global Health and Nursing Forum, which ended on Monday. The two-day international forum was organized by Fudan University's School of Nursing and Duke University's school of Nursing.

The new system aims to give patients a more comfortable experience when seeking medical care. When patients stay in the ward, a special nurse will communicate with them to gain a thorough understanding of a patient's illness as well as their psychological condition. The nurse will make a comprehensive analysis and evaluation, and then formulate an individualized nursing plan.

It's common that when patients leave hospital their treatment also ends. But the new system allows patients to continue receiving medical treatment at community-based health centers.

"We will receive information from hospitals where patients stay. And when they come out of hospital, our nurses will visit a patient at home to understand their condition and work out the recovery plan and continue to provide medical care for them," said Zhang Jing, a doctor from Changning district's Xinjingzhen Community Health Center.

"Also, we will teach a patient's family some simple nursing measures. In this way, patients will recover quickly," Zhang said.

Hu Yan, dean of Fudan University's School of Nursing believed the new nursing system will help patients receive quality medical care.

"Under the current nursing system, nurses are only responsible for a few aspects of nursing patients. For example, some nurses only do injections while some only take temperatures and some just clean," Hu said. "They lack the concept of full nursing care."

Patients have to passively accept the medical treatment, and their psychological condition is often ignored, according to Hu Yan.

So far, four hospitals in Shanghai including Zhongshan Hospital, Huashan Hospital, Ruijin Hospital and Shanghai No 10 People's Hospital have been piloting the new system and have seen good results. It will be rolled out to more hospitals this year.

The forum also discussed other nursing issues, such as Long-Term Care development, Nursing professional development and Evidence-based nursing policymaking.

The purpose of the international forum is to cultivate broader plans for future cooperation to improve nursing science, policy, and professional development in both countries.