SEP 2022 ISSUE 50

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Vision to Lead · Mission to Serve:
HKU School of Nursing’s Response
to the 5th Wave of COVID-19

Professor Chia-Chin Lin | Head|Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Charity Foundation Professor in Nursing

The vision and mission of the School of Nursing, The University of Hong Kong, have been epitomised in our response to the COVID-19 pandemic which has swept through Hong Kong in waves of infections. When COVID-19 first emerged in Hong Kong, we took a leadership role in serving the community through developing videos to challenge the rumours that were spreading about the virus and providing clear information on hand-washing and other strategies to control infection. Understanding the anxiety that community members were experiencing, we also distributed material on strategies to support mental wellness. Our videos were broadcast across Hong Kong and shared among Asian countries. We held lectures for health care professionals and students. Our staff and students also participated in community testing, provided education programmes for the public and supported a vaccination programme. Activities engaged in by our staff, students and alumni thus played a part in contributing to the low rate of infection during the prevalence of the Delta variant.

However, the Omicron variant which became wide-spread and dominant in 2022 brought with it a greatly worsened situation. Demonstrating the School’s vision to lead, our simulation laboratory has been recognised as the leader in simulation education in Southeast Asia. This has enabled us to provide outstanding clinical education for students following the suspension of in-person clinical practicum because of COVID-19. With the aim of increasing vaccination rates, we have trained our students in swabbing and vaccination skills and deployed them to community testing and vaccination centres. We also provided COVID-19 vaccinations to primary school children through our Outreach Vaccination Programme. Additionally, we set up a Hospital Authority Satellite Hotline Centre on our campus. Here we answered clinical questions and those relating to infection control for patients who were to be admitted to hospital or isolation facilities.

As the Omicron situation worsened, it became imperative to ease the burden of care affecting public hospitals. A community isolation facility (CIF) was established to treat elderly patients with COVID-19 who would otherwise have been treated at public hospitals’ accident and emergency departments. Our Medical Faculty provided medical, nursing and community care and this became the model for the development of similar services across the territory. We successfully approached the Nursing Council of Hong Kong to have our students’ service at the CIF recognised as clinical practicum, another first for the School of Nursing.

Our students reported on the great value of the learning opportunities they were afforded and were gratified that they were able to provide excellent nursing care in temporary venues with limited resources without violating nursing principles. They also found the experience of collaborating with other healthcare professionals in these settings very fulfilling. Teachers noted that they found the experience of working with students under these conditions very gratifying and were delighted with the excellent rapport and teamwork that ensued. Most satisfying to them was the tremendous improvements they witnessed in students’ knowledge and skills.

I am extremely proud of the ways in which our staff, students and alumni have contributed to the effort to manage the health of the Hong Kong community as it has been so badly affected by COVID-19. The School of Nursing continues its leadership role and its service to the community though its comprehensive clinical research programme about COVID-19, thereby contributing to knowledge for the benefit of all.

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