Comprehensive Simulated Rehabilitation Center Offers Hands-On Experience for Nursing Students

New Center Opens at Wuhan University HOPE School of Nursing

Project HOPE and Wuhan University celebrated the opening of the Nursing Comprehensive Simulated Rehabilitation Center located on the first floor of the Wuhan University HOPE School of Nursing. Made possible through a grant from the American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) program of the United States Agency for InternationalDevelopment (USAID), the new center is the first of its kind ever to be established in China.

In China there is a shortage of highly-trained nursing professionals.  While there are 1.65 million nurses, only 3% of them have the equivalent of a Bachelor’s degree. Project HOPE and Wuhan University co-established Wuhan University HOPE School of Nursing in 2001 to address the urgent need to reform and upgrade nursing education in China.

There are close to 83 million people with disabilities in China, and only 8.5% receive rehabilitation services under the current health care system. The need for high-quality rehabilitative services in China is immense.

The new Nursing Comprehensive Simulated Rehabilitation Center will offer an active learning environment to up to 600 nursing students annually by increasing their knowledge and skills about community-based rehabilitation.  It will also provide a research platform for faculty and nursing educators.  Senior nursing students will learn about rehabilitation in the new center and then go to practice in five teaching sites at community health centers in Wuhan City.  Rehabilitation services will be provided to people with disabilities in the five communities where the sub-centers are located.

Since 2007, Project HOPE, in partnership with Wuhan University, has received four grants from ASHA dedicated to building the capacity of Wuhan University HOPE School of Nursing.  In addition to the new simulated rehabilitation center, these awards have supported the establishment of the HOPE School of Nursing Long-Distance Teaching Center, the Nursing SimulationLab and Research Center and the forthcoming Nursing Disaster Preparedness Training Center.