Nursing professor travels to China as part of Foreign Experts Program

For 30 days this past summer, Tam Truong Donnelly travelled across Hunan, visiting six universities and seven hospitals, all in the name of knowledge and research sharing and collaboration, consulting and teaching graduate nursing students in China.

Donnelly (RN, PhD) a professor in the Faculty of Nursing and adjunct professor in community health sciences at Cumming School of Medicine was one of two successful awardees of the 2017 Hunan Foreign Experts Scholars Program award. As a result of the collaboration between the University of South China (USC) and University of Calgary’s Faculty of Nursing, she visited the Chinese province from June 11 to July 11, 2017.

During her whirlwind month, she presented at the China-Canada research conference hosted by USC, participated in a national research forum with a keynote lecture, toured health facilities and even attended the USC School of Nursing convocation. 
“We’ve all heard that China has grown so much but until you see it with your own eyes, you can’t believe it,” says Donnelly. “It blows your mind.”

She describes seeing hundreds of 20-storey buildings in every city and noted, “at several of the universities and health care institutions I visited, there were brand new facilities. At one university, in addition to other SIM labs, there were four rooms where students can learn basic nursing care. They had the capacity to train 3,000 nurses alone in that one facility.”

Donnelly’s series of presentations and meetings took her to campuses like Shaoyang College, Jishou College, Central South of University – Xiangya School of Nursing, Changsha Medical College, Hunan Traditional Chinese Medicine University. She also toured nursing units at Shaoyang Hospital, Zhangjiajie Hospital, Huaihua Hospital, Hunan Cancer Hospital, Hunan Women and Children’s Hospital, USC 1st, 2nd Affiliated Hospitals and community health centres.

“Almost all institutions want to have more connection and collaboration with the University of Calgary,” says Donnelly. “Sure, they definitely get a lot of benefit from my knowledge and expertise but I walked away knowing there are a lot of opportunities for us to contribute: from teaching graduate students to consulting with colleagues and researchers at different universities and hospitals.”

 “The most standout thing for me was how motivated and how hardworking, and kind the people I met were,” she says. “Everywhere I went, there were open arms.”

Donnelly says there was interest from USC to explore the possibility of a teachers’ exchange program and a students’ exchange program with UCalgary for cross-learning opportunities between both campuses. Many students were also curious about the UCalgary international students program, especially for the master’s and PhD in nursing programs, and post-doc program.

On Monday, Oct. 23, Donnelly is giving a lunch presentation “Report on Hunan, China – Foreign Expert Scholars Program: Activities and Opportunities.” This event is only open to faculty and staff at UCalgary Nursing. Please RSVP to nursdean@ucalgary.ca.