The UT Southwestern Office of Global Health and UT Southwestern Nursing Administration had the privilege and honor to collaborate and co-host four nurses from Sun Yat-sen University in China.

The nurses arrived in Dallas on December 31, 2018, and headed back to their home in China on Saturday, January 12, 2019. This two-week visit highlighted the leadership, onboarding, education, training and clinical infrastructures at UTSW, allowing these nurses to gain another perspective of the nursing profession abroad. With four very different specialties, these nurses were excited to see their careers in a different light, in a different country.

One nurse, a nurse midwife, was excited to explore the mother-baby side of UTSW. Another nurse is a transplant nurse and had the privilege to tour and shadow a variety of our inpatient solid organ transplant floors, ICU, and medical post-surgical units. One nurse discussed her specialty in rheumatology, while the final nurse is a lead nurse educator in her university hospital.

Unlike how our medical facilities are structured in the U.S., their facilities have one or two large outpatient clinical ambulatory buildings/hospitals; with a large number of free standing smaller inpatient hospitals, each serving different patient populations. These nurses explained that their largest facility has 25 floors accommodating more than 2,000 patients in that one facility. Many departments and nurse leaders throughout UT Southwestern were excited to share their areas of expertise and clinical units, and in turn, ask how things are done in China as well. It was a great learning experience for all.

On Thursday, January 10, 2019, Susan Hernandez, MBA, B.S.N., RN, our Chief Nurse Executive, hosted a lunch with our guest nurses from China and other nurse leaders including the Nurse Executive Board.

Written by:
Kelly Murphy, B.S.N., RN
Magnet Program Manager