A mission to care and share

Medical collaboration between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland has taken a big stride forward, with mainland nurses coming to the SAR under an exchange program to take care of elderly patients in local hospitals. Xi Tianqi reports from Hong Kong.

Caring for the elderly who suffer from cognitive impairment is a daunting task for most people to attempt. Liu Jiali - a nurse from the Chinese mainland - went all-out to try to conquer it, but ended up admitting that it isn't a walk in the park.

Liu, who is in her 30s, was among the first batch of 70 nurses from Guangdong province to arrive in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region in April under an extended training program to care for elderly patients at Shatin Hospital, where she continued care practice.

Putting herself in the shoes of a patient with cognitive disabilities, Liu wore diapers and had her limbs bound to experience firsthand the challenges faced by the elderly, and get a taste of the "people-oriented" philosophy when serving those in dire need of nursing care. "What I found is that nobody should take it for granted that getting elderly patients to relieve themselves in hospital rooms is an easy job. I will do my best to help them use the restroom as far as possible," she says.

Attending to the elderly is the theme of a medical personnel exchange program between the SAR and the mainland. The first group of 70 mainland nurses was followed by a separate batch of 10 doctors.

Recounting her experience under the project, Liu says she's deeply impressed by the unrestrained nursing culture adopted in the geriatric ward of Shatin Hospital, which is known for its palliative and convalescence services.

While the concept of unrestrained care for elderly patients has been advocated worldwide for many years, its implementation remains rare, because of the great attention and care it requires from medical staff. Yet, Liu says that the utopian concept of allowing elderly patients to be cared for without being physically restrained has been successfully adopted at Shatin Hospital with the aid of technology, coupled with humanistic care and supportive working conditions.

Under the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Specialty Nursing Knowledge-exchange Programme, 300 nurses from Guangdong have been invited to join a clinical practicum in Hong Kong in three batches, with each of their terms lasting about 10 months.

The Guangdong nurses have an average of eight years' clinical experience, while some have been working for more than 20 years. A few of them hold master's or doctoral degrees in nursing.

Before coming to Hong Kong, Liu had been a nurse at Sun Yat-sen University Cancer Center for more than seven years after completing her PhD in 2016. The participating mainland nurses had previously met with their Hong Kong counterparts through an online platform to discuss and share their medical knowledge and theories.

While in the SAR, Liu had to do three shifts, like those of local nurses. At the end of her shift, she would return to her dormitory and record her day's work in Hong Kong. The notes weren't meant for her family on the mainland, but for Savina Sze Yee-man - a nurse consultant in gerontology with the New Territories East Cluster of hospitals run by the city's Hospital Authority.

"I had asked them to write to me once a month about their work or life in Hong Kong as if I were a member of their families. Some of them even drew cartoons in their letters, which is heartwarming for me," says Sze.

Sze was responsible for coordinating with 10 of the mainland nurses. They would discuss how to handle the cases of various patients and share their views on the methods used. The nurses' reports enabled Sze to learn more about their experiences and needs.

Upon hearing that Liu wished to enhance her knowledge of caring for elderly cancer patients in Hong Kong during the last three months of her assignments in the city, Sze spoke to the Hospital Authority to help Liu realize her aspirations.