HKU_Newsletter_Issue 39_0828

H ead’s Message Our Challenges in Educating the Next Generation of Nurses Prof Chia-Chin Lin Professor and Head It gives me great pleasure to write this Message for the School of Nursing Newsletter. I arrived from Taiwan a short while ago and have been overwhelmed by the kindness and support I have received since taking up my post here. While I have found a number of differences between Taiwan and Hong Kong more generally, in the world of my passion, which is nursing, the issues are strikingly similar. Nursing everywhere is going through rapid change as it grapples with the complexities surrounding the provision of the best possible care for our patients in this increasingly technologized world. So, I would like to share with you my thoughts about the future and how the School can best prepare our students and our staff in light of the continuing evolution of technology. What is the world going to look like for the next generation of nurses? The Dalai Lama said: “Without technology, humanity has no future, but we have to be careful that we don’t become so mechanised that we lose our human feelings”. As we prepare our students for this future, we have to manage a delicate balance between providing them with the skills and abilities for the future while at the same time ensuring that their technological competence does not overshadow their humane concerns. We need to cultivate talent, with humanity as the core of all nursing practices. We need to prepare our students with the knowledge, skills and humane practices to strengthen inter-professional influence. We need to ensure practical competence as the foundation for social influence. We need to prepare our students with the capacity for international mobility as the axis for global influence. As staff members, we need to respond to societal demands through translating our knowledge into useful practical outcomes for patients and families. We need to develop interdisciplinary, inter-professional and international research partnerships so as to influence the direction of research towards improving people’s lives. We need to undertake research and development into assistive technology which will enhance the lives of the vulnerable and frail members of society. We need to undertake high impact international research to ensure our reach and reputation. Most of all we have to be resilient in this confronting and rapidly changing world and open ourselves to the future and its possibilities. In this way, we can nurture the strengths and abilities of our students to become humane leaders in delivering the new models of care as they evolve. N urseLetter Jul 2017 ISSUE 39 Vision to L ead Mission to Serve