Ciming Shan, Chief Nurse Executive with the Henan Province People's Hospital in Zheng Zhou, China, is visiting Columbia Memorial Hospital as part of an exchange of scientific, cultural, and nursing managerial practice between the two hospitals.
The Henan Province Hospital is the largest in that region of China with more than 2,900 beds. Nurse Shan manages more than 1,600 nurses at this hospital about six hours south of Beijing.
Shan is visiting other U.S. hospitals and nursing schools as well. Three years in the making, this program is an open exchange that will contribute to cultural and scientific progress, according to the text of a full color report Shan brought from her hospital. Presently in a major development program, Shan's hospital will soon go from 15 ICU beds to more than 200. Yet, she remarked that she has learned a lot from Columbia Memorial's practices, even given the size difference of the two healthcare institutions.
Shan, through translation provided by Columbia Memorial Director of Pathology, Dr. Eric Li, remarked that she is especially interested in nursing management techniques, nursing education and how the nurses serve their patients. When asked what the most remarkable thing she had experienced so far, Nurse Shan laughed: The snow and ice. She has been here through our recent winter storms.
On the serious side, she said: Even though small, this is a well run hospital.
While shadowing ICU nurses, Shan was especially impressed with the bedside coding system for the dispensing of drugs and theresponsibility of the nurses using this system.
She admitted that even though her hospital and Columbia Memorial are equal in the kinds of hardware and diagnostic equipment they use, Columbia Memorial has an edge in software applications. She was especially impressed by these pharmacy checks that the coding system provides and how it prevents medication errors.
"Columbia Memorial is a great place to
start my practice coming out of residency.
And it will be great to work in an area where
so many medical specialties are available for
my patients."
My focus is to clearly understand general hospital operations at the nursing level, how it is organized, what systems are in place and how nurses are educated and trained in the hospital.
One of Shan's first observations was the clothing worn by nurses. In China, she said, nurses still wear traditional white uniforms, caps and bars on the caps to indicate their rank in the organization. She found the multi-colored, patterned, nurses outfits here quite unique but thought it might be hard to recognize who is a nurse and who isn't.
On her return to China, Nurse Shan will report to the Provincial government with a formal document citing healthcare advances she has seen. She will then report to hospital administration and speak to nursing staff about this exchange.
According to Leitha Pierro, Vice President of Patient and Clinical Operations, Columbia Memorial has entered into a sister hospital relationship with the Henan Provincial Hospital.
Hosting Ciming Shan has provided learning experiences for our nurses as we compare both cultural and professional differences in
providing nursing care to our patients. It has been very exciting, said Pierro.
