HKU_Newsletter_Issue43_0128

Clinical Excellence Reflection in Clinical Excellence It was my great pleasure to join the HKU School of Nursing in August 2018 as Associate Professor in nursing practice and work with a highly enthusiastic, intelligent and dedicated team under the leadership of Professor Lin. Prior to taking up this position, I was the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) in Hospital Authority Head Office (HAHO). In this leadership role, I oversaw cluster nursing service operations, specialty development and performance monitoring of services and practices, particularly in community nursing services and nurse clinics at the Hospital Authority corporate level. Before that, I worked in clinical areas for more than 30 years, mostly in paediatrics as Registered Nurse, Registered Midwife, Nursing Officer, Ward Manager and Department Operations Manager in various public hospitals in Hong Kong and Australia. Though my current role in the university differs from my work as a clinical leader, the responsibility and passion for nurturing younger generation of nurses to become competent nursing leaders stays the same. Education, practice and research are the integral parts of nursing, interconnecting with one another. Strengthening partnership between nursing education and nursing services is essential if we are to keep pace with the rapidly changing and evolving complex environment, the change of disease patterns as well as advanced technology. Collaborative efforts should be made to close the theory and practice gaps which students may encounter and achieve the synergizing effect through integration of contemporary theory and practice in the delivery of nursing education and quality patient care. Evidence based practice improves healthcare quality and patient outcomes as well as reducing variations in care and costs. Research serves to introduce new ideas, identify problems and provide new frameworks to guide thinking and actions. It has a tremendous influence on current and future professional nursing practice. To achieve nursing excellence, clinical nurses should continue to advance their practice based on evidence from current local and international research. Joint efforts by university and clinical areas in conducting clinical research provide mutual benefits, providing the focus of research is clinically relevant and the methodologically sound. Educators should constantly update their clinical knowledge and teaching methods and stay current with the changes and new developments in healthcare practices so as to nurture our students with the skills, knowledge, humanity and ability to cope with the future challenges through problem solving, critical thinking and reflection. With the concerted efforts of education, practice and research, our next generation of nurses will be trained to the standards we hold for clinical excellence and become outstanding role models who will provide safe, high quality professional care to the public we serve. Ms. Susanna Lee Associate Professor (Nursing Practice) (From left) Ms. Angel Lau, Research Assistant, HKU School of Nursing; Dr. Patsy Chau, Associate Professor, HKU School of Nursing; Ms. Susanna Lee, Associate Professor (Nursing Practice), HKU School of Nursing; Ms. Po-King Ma, Department Operations Manager, United Christian Hospital; Ms. Samantha Chong, Associate Professor (Nursing Practice), HKU School of Nursing; Dr. Janet Wong, Associate Professor, HKU School of Nursing; Mr. William Lam, Lecturer, HKU School of Nursing 3 Issue 43 Jan 2019