To accelerate the integration of nursing and other disciplines and improve the interdisciplinary research skills of both teachers and students, West China School of Nursing offered a new postgraduate course entitled “Nursing Research Frontiers and Clinical Transformation” (NRF&CT) in Fall Semester 2020. It is one of the innovative postgraduate courses in the curriculum reform of the “Double First-Class Initiative” of the nursing discipline.
Well-known experts in such fields as polymer biomaterials, computer information & big data, basic medicine, clinical medicine, translational medicine, and evidence-based management were invited to give brilliant lectures on frontier research topics in the context of nursing.
The course begun with the lecture entitled “New Momentum for the Development of the Nursing Discipline” given by Prof. LI Ka, Executive Dean of West China School of Nursing. Prof. LI shared her views on the present and future of the nursing discipline. Then, Prof. LI Lingli, Vice Dean of West China School of Nursing, introduced the course details, including an overview, lecturers, contents, objectives, and assessment. The introduction expanded students’ horizons, leaving them full of expectations for this new course.
The course consisted of 22 theoretical classes and 2 practical classes in six sections, namely, polymer biomaterials, computer information & big data, basic medicine, clinical medicine, translational medicine, and evidence-based management. In the polymer biomaterials section, Prof. WU Yao, Vice Dean of Office of Scientific Research Development, Sichuan University, Prof. XU Jiazhuang, winner of the National Science Fund for Excellent Young Scholars, Prof. ZHU Xiangdong, leader of the National Key R&D Program of China, and Prof. QIAN Zhiyong, winner of The National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, were invited to give lectures about the application and development trend of biomaterials, the main application of medical polymer materials in the field of biomedicine, the application of biomaterials in regenerative medicine, as well as the frontier development trend of nanomaterials.
In the computer information & big data section, Prof. SHI Qingke, Director of the Information Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Prof. HE Zhenan, College of Computer Science, Sichuan University, Prof. SHEN Bairong, Executive Dean of Institutes for Systems Genetics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Prof. ZENG Xiaoqian, the Executive Deputy Director of West China Biomedical Big Data Center, Sichuan University, in big data of computer information section.
We invited Prof. CHEN lijuan, the Deputy Director of State/National Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, share with students the program application experiences of her team and herself in the past decade. Her examples enabled students to have a detailed understanding of how to write applications for a National Natural Science Fundation of China.
In the clinical medicine section, Prof. TIAN Weidong, Chief Scientist of the “973 Program” and the National Key R&D Program of China, Prof. CHEN Lei, Director of Clinical Research Management Department, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Prof. CHENG Guo, Chief Scientist of the Center for Health Food Science Evaluation, Sichuan University, and Prof. YUE Jirong, Deputy Director of National Clinical Research Center for Geriatrics were invited to give lectures on the development trend and status quo of clinical medical research in China, the ways to apply modern clinical research methodology to the design of clinical scientific research, measurement and evaluation, and an introduction to how to improve the research ability of postgraduate students with the examples of child nutrition and elderly delirium assessment.
Prof. YUAN Shulan, Director of Achievement Transformation Department, West China Hospital, Sichuan University as well as Prof. SONG Xiangrong and Prof. XIE Huiqi from the State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, Sichuan University were invited to give lectures on the basic knowledge of intellectual property rights and achievement transformation, the contents and ideas of translational medicine research, as well as the R&D and transformation of tissue repair materials.
In the evidence-based management section, Prof. DU Liang, President of West China Medical Publishers, Prof. LUO Li from the Business School of Sichuan University, Prof. WEN Jin, Deputy Director of Institute of Hospital Management, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, and Prof. LIU Zhenmi from the West China School of Public Health, Sichuan University were invited to give lectures on the concepts related to medical devices and clinical trials, hospital management research problems and research methods, the connotation of nursing innovation and its innovation path, as well as the methods of systematic review.
In terms of the practical classes, Ms. Wu Sisi from the Public Laboratory Technology Center of West China Hospital, Sichuan University led students to Xinchuan Science and Technology Park to observe and learn from the lecture themed on Biomedical Experimental Skills Practice. Specifically, students learned about the laboratory construction as well as the means and ways to carry out experiments and use equipment, which greatly stimulated their interest in the research on basic experiments.
In the last class, seven groups of students presented their projects, and experts from Biomaterials, Regenerative Medicine and Nursing were invited to give comments. Specifically, each group was required to choose an innovative topic in nursing and report on the chosen topic from such aspects as research basis, status quo at home and abroad, research design, and research methods. Experts pointed out the problems and incubation prospects of each project and recognized most of the topics. They believed that some of the topics could be further incubated in the form of research projects or patents. These presentations greatly increased students’ enthusiasm for innovation.
As an innovative course in the curriculum reform of the “Double First-Class Initiative” of the nursing discipline, aims to systematically train nursing postgraduates through studying and utilizing the research methodology and the latest research progress in such fields as biological materials, computer information & big data, basic medicine, clinical medicine, and translational medicine. This course will expand students’ horizon, inspire them to develop scientific thinking, enable them to have clear research ideas, and offer a new perspective for the selection of nursing research topics and research directions.
