Nottingham has a partnership/twinning arrangement with Ningbo, Zhejiang province and the University of Nottingham Ningbo campus (UNNC) has been developing links with Hospital Number One.
An opportunity arose to visit to Ningbo to look at the current practices on the pulmonary ward, clinics and any community provision we could find. We were focusing on the information/ discharge planning or self-management advice given on the ward to all respiratory patients, in particular , COPD. We also wanted to know if smoking cessation was addressed at any point and if referral was made to clinics. Pulmonary rehabilitation is a known beneficial treatment in the UK and we were keen to know what, if any, advice, practical training for patients or education was done in the community.
We arrived with these ideas in our mind and how we could possibly adapt any current practice to meet Global guidelines. Any future projects must be owned and led by our Ningbo colleagues and must be sustainable.
We visited community clinics, traditional Chinese medicine, an acute pulmonary ward and have seen some interesting practices and ideas. We hope to develop an integrated care model using pulmonary rehab ( Fei KungFu) and smoking cessation that will lead to new ways of improving healthcare provision in the province in China. PICS will be involved in developing and training of Doctors for the Integrated Pathway.
By Alison Sutherland -PICS Respiratory Nurse.