In May 2019, the China Consortium of Elite Teaching Hospitals, which spearheads reform of physician residency education, launched the China Nursing Consortium of Elite Teaching Hospitals. The Nursing Consortium, consisting of China’s top 9 hospitals, aims to deliver valuable input into national policy-making in standardizing nurse residency training.

Representatives of the China Nursing Consortium of Elite Teaching Hospitals visited 3 leading American hospitals to learn more about advanced methods of nursing residency training in the United States on October 28 – November 2, 2019. With CMB support and facilitation, the delegation met with specialists in nursing education, management, and clinical nursing at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), Mayo Clinic, and University of Illinois at Chicago Health Center (UI Health). Nursing directors or deans from 5 Consortium members participated in the study tour, representing Peking Union Medical College Hospital; Peking University Third Hospital; Xiangya Hospital, Central South University; The First Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University; and the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, University of Hong Kong.

Delegation members were particularly interested in learning about how American programs help their graduates bridge the knowledge and skills gap between school education and hospital service. Their discussions with peers and observation of training lectures and simulations provided a useful reference for the further development of nurse residency training programs in China. At MGH, the exchange of information focused on the history of residency training and the institutional, executive, and human resources needed to set the foundation for a strong residency program. Nursing educators at the Mayo Clinic introduced their training curriculum and provided illustrative examples; UI Health representatives also shared their evidence-based curriculum and offered opportunities for the Chinese delegation members to meet with former nursing residents.  

The Chinese delegates were particularly impressed with the American residency programs’ emphasis on the soft nursing skills – communications, patient management, team building, etc. This focus prepares new nurses on how to communicate with patients, manage self-care with resilience, prevent the potential for patient violence, make ethical decisions, and develop their own leadership capacity.