Wuhan

Project HOPE is on the ground in China helping support health workers and hospitals in Wuhan meet their immediate needs and handle the massive influx of patients exhibiting flu-like symptoms as the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) continues to spread.

Read more about our work here.

About Wuhan, China

China has the largest population in the world — more than 1.4 billion people — and is facing a critical shortage of trained nurses as well as adequate housing and medical infrastructure for an increasing elderly population.

Wuhan, capital of the province of Hubei, is the largest city in central China. Home to more than 11 million people, the city is considered to be the political, economic and educational center of the region and serves as a major transportation hub.

The city came into the world’s focus during the 2020 coronavirus outbreak, which started in Wuhan and quickly grew to become deadlier than the 2002–03 SARS outbreak inside China. The virus is believed to have begun in a food market in Wuhan, and the city was the first to be placed under a travel lockdown that came to affect more than 50 million people.

Project HOPE’s Wuhan office was established to help educate a team of future nursing leaders through the Wuhan University’s HOPE School of Nursing. Today we continue to enhance the nursing school’s capacity by facilitating faculty training and international collaboration and exchange, and establishing state-of-the-art learning labs.

The Challenges

A Shortage of Qualified Nurses

Despite its status as the world’s most populous country and second-largest economy, China has a significant shortage of trained nursing professionals. According to the Lancet Medical Journal, there are only about three registered nurses for every 1,000 people in China. This figure is well below the international average, as well as the ratio of that of major nations like the U.S. (nine) and Germany (13).

Lack of Adequate Eldercare

Eldercare also remains a critical challenge throughout the country. In 2018, there were 241 million people over the age of 60 in China. China’s rapidly-aging population has created a significant need to strengthen the national infrastructure for housing and medical care for the elderly.

This need was amplified during the 2020 coronavirus outbreak, which erupted in Wuhan and proved especially dangerous for elderly populations.

Bringing HOPE to Wuhan

Our History in Wuhan

Project HOPE’s Wuhan office opened in 2001 when we first partnered with Wuhan University to establish the Wuhan University HOPE School of Nursing – one of our strongest and longest-running health workforce programs, that has since trained tens of thousands of nurses. Many of these nurses became front-line responders to the 2020 coronavirus outbreak.

Over the years, the Wuhan office focus has expanded to include other initiatives in response to current and emerging needs, such as our HIV/AIDS treatment and care program, which contributed to the reduction of mortality among people living with the virus in the Hubei province.

In 2020, our team in Wuhan was one of the first to receive critical shipments of protective equipment to help support doctors and nurses as they rushed to contain the spread of nCoV-2019.

Training Nurses to Combat China’s Health Challenges

At the onset of the HOPE School of Nursing, HOPE prepared faculty to teach the curriculum and promoted the school as a national training center for nurses. We have since continued our work to enhance the university’s capacity through faculty training, international collaboration and exchange programs, and the establishment of the following state-of-the-art learning labs:

• A Nursing Simulation Lab and Research Center
• A Nursing Long-Distance E-Learning Center
• A Comprehensive Simulated Rehabilitation Center
• A Disaster Preparedness Training Center

In 2010, a grant from USAID’s Office of American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) allowed the HOPE School of Nursing to establish the Simulation Lab and Research Center to help the school reach nursing students, health care providers and nursing faculty in provinces throughout the country. Since opening, more than 1,000 people have enriched their education through the lab, and more than 300 health care providers have used the lab for advanced training.

Each  year, more than 2,000 clinical nurses rely on the Long-Distance E-Learning Center for continued higher education and mentoring. The Comprehensive Simulated Rehabilitation Center is used for teaching the nursing major compulsory course, rehabilitation nursing and community nursing, as well as for training community health care centers’ health care providers. This lab is also used for clinical treatment; to collaborate with the affiliated hospital, the center is open to autistic children and other patients who need function rehabilitation.

In 2017, Project HOPE and Wuhan University further expanded the school’s programming with the addition of the Disaster Preparedness Training Center, which helps doctors and nurses understand how to respond to disasters through seminars, simulated response exercises and improved disaster-related curriculum.

Today we’re helping the university through the process of becoming an internationally-accredited nursing school. We’re also implementing a new palliative care program, which trains health professionals on quality end-of-life care and provides patient and family support.

Building on a partnership since 1991, Project HOPE’s Wuhan office is also helping to further strengthen and expand China’s health workforce in maternal and child health, burn treatment and care, oncology and orthopedics at the Liuyang People’s Hospital in Hunan province.

Our Impact

Wuhan University’s HOPE School of Nursing has educated and certified thousands of nurses since 2001. Between 2012 and 2016, the nursing school’s Simulation Research Center helped train over 710 students and hosted 12 national workshops attended by nursing students in 24 provinces across China. The Disaster Preparedness Training Center has helped hundreds of nurses learn to use critical equipment and disaster response protocols.

Since 2002, HOPE and Wuhan University have also co-facilitated successful exchange programs to provide instruction on best practices for disaster response and eldercare, attracting more than 100 educators and 2,000 students from as far away as the University of Illinois. The school has hosted dozens of conferences and presentations led by health care experts from across the world.

In July 2018, Project HOPE was awarded the prestigious Heart to Heart Award by the United States General Counsel in Wuhan in recognition of many years of dedication and investment in the country’s health care system. The award recognizes excellence in the collaboration and cultural exchange of health professional training between the U.S. and China. The school recently signed an agreement with Project HOPE to extend its partnership through 2020, continuing the commitment to working together towards improving quality health care.

You can help save lives

Since the early days of our work with Wuhan University in China, Project HOPE has helped make major strides toward improved health outcomes in areas like disaster response and palliative care. But there is still work to be done. Your donation will help us enhance and continue programs like those delivering lifesaving support in Wuhan.