The School of Nursing of Fujian Medical University, founded in 1985, is the first institution of higher learning in Fujian Province and one of the earliest schools in China to set up the nursing program after the reinstitution of higher nursing education. Starting out with programs leading to an associate degree, it offered the bachelor program in nursing in 1994, master program in 1999, and doctoral program in geriatric nursing in 2007. The School of Nursing has become one of the few nursing personnel training bases in China with a holistic system of undergraduate-postgraduate-doctoral education, and enjoys high prestige and academic status in the nursing field of China.
In order to meet the demand for nursing personnel in the 21st century, to strengthen the students' comprehensive ability, innovation ability and practical ability, and to support and promote the reform and innovation of experimental teaching, the School established in 2004 the experimental teaching center of nursing school run by a dual management system at both university and school levels, which undertakes the experimental teaching tasks of nursing major and nursing-related courses in this university. The functions of the laboratories have thus been changed and expanded as follows: the design, research and development of experimental teaching, the research on experimental teaching reform, the sharing and construction of experimental teaching resources, the implementation and management of experimental teaching and the application of the findings of experimental teaching.
Experimental Teaching Facilities
The Experimental Teaching Center for Nursing Science, sited in a pleasant teaching environment, covers an area of 6,090 square meters and has RMB 5.365 million worth of equipment, sufficiently meeting the needs of experimental teaching. It consists of an Aesthetics Training Room，an Electronic Simulator Room for Physical Examination, 2 Nursing Skill Demo Rooms， 6 Preparation Rooms and 7 laboratories, namely Basic Nursing Laboratory, Emergency Nursing Laboratory, Gynecological and Obstetrical Nursing Laboratory, Pediatric Nursing Laboratory, Adult Nursing Laboratory, Rehabilitation Nursing Laboratory and Nursing Assessment Laboratory.
Thanks to its consistent emphasis on the quality of teaching staff, the Center has 36 qualified teachers, including 8 professors, 12 associate professors, 1 doctoral supervisor and 4 master ones. Over 38.9% of the 18 full-time teachers hold master degrees, among whom 4 are doctorate candidates.
Professor Jiang Xiaoying, a doctoral supervisor and winner of provincial Award for Distinguished Teachers and the State Council Special Allowances, is the head of the Experimental Teaching Center, the dean of School of Nursing of Fujian Medical University, an associate director of the Nursing Teaching Guidance Council of National Higher Education under Education Ministry, the vice-president of China Higher Learning Nursing Education Association, the vice-president of Chinese Nursing Association, , the president of Eastern China Higher Learning Nursing Education Association, the president of Fujian Provincial Nursing Association, a jury member of the national science and technology awards, also the head of a series of teaching programs and projects: the National-level Quality Course of Nursing Management, National-level Specialty Major Project, provincial-level project of Experimental Area for Talent Innovation, provincial-level teaching team, and Provincial Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center. She has achieved great accomplishments in teaching and research in the field of nursing. In recent years, she has taken charge of a great number of subjects, including 2 national-level subjects assigned by Ministry of Education, 8 provincial-level teaching and research programs sponsored by Provincial Departments of Education, Science and Technology and Public Health. Meanwhile, she has taken part in 7 research programs approved by Provincial Science Fund and Provincial Department of Pubic Health. She has successfully gained 1.1 million yuan as the fund for teaching and research and published more than 130 papers in relative journals at home and abroad, 58 of which are teaching-relevant, winning 18 awards at various levels. She is also the chief editor and co-editor of 15 books, including The National Advanced Nursing Undergraduate Planning Textbooks-- Nursing Management, Nursing Aesthetics, and Nursing Ethics (14 textbooks and 1 monograph), 9 of which were under her general editorship. She has played a significant role in supporting and promoting the teaching and reform of nursing science.
Experimental Teaching Tasks and Teaching Reform
The Experimental Teaching Center has been actively exploring new educational ideas and carrying out experimental teaching reform. It passed the assessment of labs of core courses in Fujian general universities in May, 1999. In order to meet the great demand for nursing personnel in the 21st century and to strengthen the students' comprehensive and innovation abilities, it has reformed itself in both the teaching system and teaching contents, which resulted in the three teaching modules including Nursing Basic, Professional Nursing and Humanity Nursing, greatly improving the experimental teaching and the students' quality. The main responsibility of the Center lies in the experimental teaching of nursing major and the skill training of nursing-related courses in this university. It offers 11 courses with teaching hours reaching up to 224,940/person•hour every year and is open to the students 24 hours a day. It operates 109 experimental projects now. Besides, it is also in charge of the Provincial Self-Taught Examination of higher nursing major, the Graduation Examinations and training of both junior college education and undergraduate education, and the nursing skill training of both the provincial and state-level continuing education. The Center optimizes the use of all the laboratory equipment and the allocation and share of the teaching resources.
Management of the Experimental Center
The Experimental Teaching Center operates under a dual management system at both university and school levels with the director responsible for it. It takes the mode of unified management in implementing the teaching programs, using the laboratories, managing the technicians and instruments, and is open to the students for their out-of-class experiments. The sharing under the unified management leads to an effective use of the teaching resources and produces the best results. Ever since its foundation, the Center has strictly followed the regulations and rules of the laboratories and has taken a series of measures supplemented on the specific occasions, which guarantees a smooth operation of the Center and high teaching quality.
Oriented to the educational objectives of the nursing specialty and professional needs, the Experimental Teaching Center for Nursing Science aims to set up a human-oriented curriculum system which involves biological, psychological and social-medical models, and to promote the reform of experimental teaching. Recently, it has made outstanding achievements: the faculty members have undertaken over 41 educational and research projects at departmental, provincial and national levels, published 142 research papers at home and abroad, and won 43 awards for scientific research achievements at different levels; the Center has recorded experimental teaching videos on educational research findings and experience which are made into VCDs and video films of nursing operation and are widely used in over 200 nursing schools, medical and health institutions as a guideline for experimental teaching, skill training and nursing assessment. The release of teaching videos won the first prize for Fujian Nursing Scientific and Technological Progress in 2001, bringing considerable economic and social benefit. Moreover, the Center has also participated actively in teaching material compilation. In the past few years the faculty members have participated in the compilation of 41 national or college-co-edited textbooks, chief editing nine of them, co-editing five, and self-editing three.
The accomplishments of the educational reform program with faculty members as chief leaders are:
2007
The nursing specialty of FJMU was listed in the National Characteristic Specialty Construction Program.
The course of Nursing Management was appraised National Excellent Course.
The Teaching Team of Humanistic Nursing was appraised provincial educational team of Fujian Province.
2008
Medical Nursing and Surgical Nursing were appraised Provincial Excellent Courses.
The Experimental Teaching Center for Nursing Science was named the Experiment Teaching Demonstration Center of Fujian Province.
The TQC-Oriented Reform and Practice of Undergraduate Curriculum of Nursing won the first prize for Teaching Achievement of Fujian Province.
Emergency Nursing was appraised Provincial Excellent Course.
In order to strengthen the international exchange and co-operation relations, the Center has entered into long-term academic exchange and co-operation relationship with correspondent universities and institutes in Denmark, Finland, Sweden, USA., Singapore, Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong and signed agreements with Nursing colleges in Denmark, Finland and Sweden to exchange teachers and students for academic visits. Since 2005, Copenhagen Nursing School has been inviting one teacher and one student from our university per year to Denmark and sending their teachers and students twice per year to visit and study in our center.
The Center also works hard to enhance the communication and co-operation with Nursing schools and institutes in China. A large number of experts and scholars at home and abroad have visited, lectured in, and spoken highly of it. The Center has become an important window for international exchange and co-operation and is striving to make greater influence.
Ever since its foundation, the Experimental Teaching Center for Nursing Science has been committed to improving itself, constructing a state-level experimental teaching demonstration center, and educating qualified nursing personnel.