Office of China Programs

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China Development Grant - Nursing

Teresa Wehrwein, CNAA, RN, Ph.D.

College of Nursing:

Proposal:

The purpose of this proposal is to obtain support for travel to China with the College of Nursing’s partner, Dr. John Ip, President and CEO of Vironics, Inc. to promote the implementation of “Nursing of Adult Patients: Current American Practices” in China. The purpose of “Nursing of Adult Patients: Current American Practices” is to acquaint international nurses with the standards of nursing practice and current care processes in American health care. Vironics has a history of providing health care and facilitating educational programming for Chinese physicians and health care administrators. Dr. Ip contacted the College of Nursing to explore development of a nursing education program in response to request from his Chinese colleagues. The College of Nursing has agreed to work with Vironics, Inc. as our exclusive partner in marketing this course in China.

This program will not prepare nurses to become licensed in America. We believe however, that Chinese nurses will benefit from learning American nursing practices and be able to apply it to their care for patients in China.

Development of this course content has been completed by the CON faculty using a curriculum model developed to prepare American nurses to return to practice after an extended absence. Initial course content has been produced for the web and shared with Chinese nursing and medical educators by our partner Dr. Ip.  Dr. Ip and his Chinese associates have determined that the English language skills of the nurses are not comparable to the health care administrators who have previously completed educational programs in collaboration with Vironics, Inc.  Making this trip to China would be useful to Michigan State University College of Nursing to make necessary connections and collaborate in both hospital and government settings. Additionally, we would allow for direct assessment of students’ language skills and determination of ways to support a mixed Chinese and English learning situation.

Activities:

Specifically this request is to support travel for Teresa Wehrwein, Associate Professor and Assistant Dean for Professional Partnerships and Faculty Practice to China for the purpose of meeting with officials and to determine the best way to develop the translation, while maintaining program integrity and MSU’s control of the educational standards of performance. Individuals we would be meeting with during this trip would include: Mr. An Thou, President, Xin Hua Holdings Company, and Dr. Thu SM Junin, President, Chinese PLA General Hospital and President, Military Postgraduate School. Dr. Zhu is in charge of all post graduate and continuing medical education courses and will be taking care of the marketing of this course and is key to marketing this course in China. Additionally, we would plan to meet with officials at Nursing Schools as identified by the Chinese contacts. This trip would be scheduled in 2006 at a time convenient to Drs. Wehrwejn and Ip and their Chinese contacts.

Outcomes:

• Increase understanding of nursing education needs in China
• Determination of English language skills of potential students for the “Nursing of Adult Patients: Current American Practices”
• To elicit the cooperation Chinese Nursing Medical Educators to support this program.
• The development of this relationship with Vironics, Inc. is the first opportunity for the College of Nursing to establish an educational presence in China.