Lin Zhan and Shirleatha Lee
University of Memphis, USA
Title: Building sustainable academic partnerships globally
Biography
Biography: Lin Zhan and Shirleatha Lee
Abstract
Nursing education in China has been in a process of transformation since early 1990s evidenced by advancing nursing education from Diploma to AND programs to BSN, MSN and PhD programs, increasing academic and scholarly exchange between Chinese nursing and nursing globally, and making efforts to use international as well as evidence-based standards for academic nursing amid changing political and social contexts. Nurse scholars, educators, leaders, and clinicians in China have, to some extent, adopted American and other countries Academic Nursing models such as American Associations of Colleges of Nursing essentials for BSN and MSN programs. Nursing scholars, educators, leaders, and clinicians from other countries have been invited to lecture, consult, and help design programs, resulting in many meaningful collaborations between Chinese and American academic nursing. Transforming Chinese nursing education requires a paradigm shift from a traditionally medical model based education to nursing discipline specific education. Meantime, developing nursing faculty is needed to build faculty capacity to educate nurses of the future. Social and political contexts in China have been changing toward high demands for better educated health care professionals including nursing to meet needs of individuals, groups, and populations. For over two decades, the author has been a visiting professor for more than 10 Chinese universities, helped established the first PhD program in China. The author has initiated and sustained productive partnerships with Chinese nursing programs. For this presentation, the authors will draw experiences and evidence-based practice to articulate workable strategies for building productive partnerships in global academic nursing. Examples of successful partnerships and tips and insight will be shared as how to build a sustainable partnership between Chinese and American nursing programs. Productive academic nursing partnership supports promoting global nursing education with mutually respectful standards and competencies, and ultimately preparing future nurses that meet ever-changing needs of healthcare at home and on a global scale.