Peking University, May 13, 2018: On May 11, a day before the International Nurses Day, PKU Health Science Center held the annual honoring ceremony to honor outstanding nurses from PKU in Yingjie Overseas Exchange Center.
At the scene of ceremony
Nursing in PKU has a long history. As early as 1915, nursing was taught in National Medical College, the former PKU Health Science Center. In 1984, the Department of Nursing was founded in National Medical College and took the lead to revive higher nursing education. Recently, as a part of “Double First Class” Initiative, PKU Nursing is heading towards the future with new missions. Up to now, there have been 624 “outstanding head nurses” and 1050 “outstanding nurses” awarded in honoring ceremonies since 1993.
Zhan Qimin, president of PKU Health Science Center, hoped the School of Nursing could carry its responsibility by cultivating professionals in nursing and transferring relevant theories into practice. Before giving the awards to the “outstanding head nurses” and “outstanding nurses”, Liu Yucun, chairman of PKU Health Science Center Council shared his own thoughts about nursing: “The nursing team is a main force in medical service, a bridge between doctors and patients and an essential index for the assessment of hospital.” He also encouraged the awarded nurses to improve themselves and to promote their positive attitude towards life in the future.
Zhan Qimin delivering his speech
Liu Yucun announcing the recognition decision
Some nurses and their family members shared their stories.
Liu Jianping, the mother-in-law of a nurse from Peking University People’s Hospital, said her father was nursed 10 years ago during his treatment in hospital. During that period, she was deeply touched by these considerate nurses and her son fell in love with one of them.
Guo Renxiu, a nurse from Beijing Cancer Hospital helped a young patient find the tranquility of mind through talking, listening and accompanying. Zhu Zhaoge, a nurse from Peking University Third Hospital kept staying with a patient who had been away from her daughter and played the role of a daughter till the end of her life.
Tian Lina is a nurse from Stomatological Hospital of Peking University. She helped dozens of the wounded and worked day and night in Wenchuan Earthquake, during which she found out that she had been pregnant. Her family insisted that she should come back home and took care of herself. But she had been so deeply connected with lives of the wounded in disaster areas that she determined to stay and finish the 23-day rescue work with a baby inside her.
People were also moved by stories told by Zheng Baoqing, a nurse from the Clinical Psychiatric Department of Peking University Sixth Hospital. To pacify patients with delusional paranoia, a nurse had to stay up all night to accompany them; to assist the recovery of patients with depression, the nurse had to placate them and their family as well; to fulfill duty, a nurse had to stay with OCD patients when they kept washing hands over and over again.
Sun Wenxi, a nurse from Peking University Shougang Hospital Hospice Center, stated that, “The goal of hospice care is to allow every waning life end peacefully with no pain nor regrets through comprehensive and professional care.” An eighty-year-old man, who had been living abroad for a long time, was eager to come back to his hometown. Through comprehensive and professional care specially designed for him, the elderly's symptoms of discomfort were eased and his life came to an end while accompanied by his loved ones.
Nurses sharing their stories
The ceremony ended with the capping ceremony. The young generation took nurse caps and candles from the older generation and pledged that they would fulfill their duty with love by inheriting the spirit of Florence Nightingale from the moment they became nurses.
The capping ceremony
Written by: Peng Wei
Edited by: Wei Yunqi and Xu Liangdi
