Posted: 11/30/2010
Issues related to patient and family management of hypertension, schizophrenia, and women’s health are the focus of dissertation proposals from the fourth cohort of doctoral nursing students from China’s Peking Union Medical College (PUMC). The five students will present their proposals on Friday, December 3, at 4 pm at the Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing (JHUSON) in Room 305. Dean Martha Hill, PhD, RN, FAAN and Roy Schwartz, MD, past president of the China Medical Board, will provide remarks.
Huang Baoyan, Kang Xiaofeng, Zou Haiou, Fan Yanyan, and Sun Ning are members of the fourth cohort in this PUMC/JHUSON doctoral program partnership that in 2008 resulted in the first nurse PhD graduates from a Chinese university. The collaboration has afforded the Chinese students an opportunity to develop relationships with faculty mentors that have often evolved into collaborative research relationships post graduation.
“In addition to advancing their dissertation work, the students engage in many clinical and teaching observations that allow them to compare the U.S. and Chinese healthcare systems and higher education in nursing,” said professor Marie Nolan, PhD, RN, FAAN, Director of the JHUSON-PUMC Program Partnership and chairperson of the Department of Acute and Chronic Care. “When the students aren’t in the classroom, they also experience American culture and how it compares to their own.”
A hallmark of the program is the dissertation work that is guided by a PUMC faculty advisor in collaboration with a JHUSON faculty co-advisor. Students spend the fall semester of their second year on campus at the JHUSON in Baltimore, MD. While there, students participate in doctoral seminars with other PhD students and learn about the best of evidence-based nursing practice, and work toward finalizing their dissertation proposals.
The joint JHUSON-PUMC program, funded by the China Medical Board of Boston, Inc., was established in 2004 with the goal of bringing China and its healthcare system an internationally recognized, doctoral-level model for Chinese nursing education. The program officially launched in 2004 under the leadership of the late Dr. Vicki Mock, then JHUSON-PUMC program director. Since the first cohort enrolled in the fall of 2005, 20 students have participated in the collaboration.