Embedding Impact
HKU’s vision for 2016-2025 rests on the key planks of Internationalisation, Innovation and Interdisciplinarity, with the aim of embedding Impact into all academic and educational outcomes. The year 2018 saw the School of Nursing further its initiatives on each of these planks.
We promote our students’ sense of global citizenship by providing them with innovative and challenging international and interdisciplinary experiences. We have greatly expanded our network of partnerships to include 39 renowned Schools of Nursing around the globe, including schools in Australia, Canada, Greece, Japan, Mainland China, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, UK and USA. Over the past academic year, we welcomed 117 incoming exchange students from 18 international universities, and in this academic year 200 of our students will participate in scholarly and cultural activities in 35 universities outside Hong Kong.
In addition to this, as a member of the Southeast and East Asian Education and Research Network, we organised a Global Health Nursing and Leadership Development Workshop for student representatives from seven of the participating countries. This was a stimulating and ground-breaking two-week programme which provided students with the conceptual tools to analyse key health issues in the region and explore the leadership roles nurses can play in the interdisciplinary areas of health equity, health maintenance and prevention of disease and disability.
Our 8th Hong Kong International Nursing Forum held in December, in conjunction with the 2018 International Council on Women’s Health Issues Congress, provided a fitting culmination to our year’s activities. This stimulating event was organised with Johns Hopkins School of Nursing and it attracted over 500 attendees from more than twenty countries/regions. The joint themes of women’s health and holistic care provided a superb framework to examine innovative and interdisciplinary initiatives in practice, education and research, from a range of international perspectives. Professor Dame Nicky Cullum from the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom gave an inspiring Grace Tien Lecture. She drew upon her highly acclaimed work in wound care to consider issues around the development and delivery of programmes of useful and usable research. Other luminaries who delivered keynote lectures on a range of highly relevant contemporary topics included Professor Antonia M Villarruel, from the University of Pennsylvania; Professor Mary McCarron, from Trinity College Dublin; Professor Ann Kurth, from Yale University and Professor Pamela S Hinds from The George Washington University.
In bringing together world renowned leaders, the 8th Hong Kong International Nursing Forum provided many opportunities for students, academics and practitioners from around the globe to exchange ideas, plan joint endeavours and engage in highly relevant discussions. It also facilitated a Deans’ networking meeting which culminated in the signing of 10 new agreements on future collaboration with prestigious international universities.
I have no doubt that impact is being embedded through our international collaborations and interdisciplinary innovations in research, education and practice. I am very grateful to all of my colleagues and collaborators who have contributed so much to the School’s success.