At Huaxiba, adjacent to the Wanliqiao Bridge along the Jinjiang River, Chengdu, a famous historic and cultural city of China, there is a century-old cradle for cultivating excellent nursing students--- West China School of Nursing, Sichuan University. Its history can be traced back to 1915 whena Canadian Ms.Caroline Wellwood founded a nursing school affiliated to the School of Medicine of West China Union University. In 1946, the Department of Nursing was established to officially enroll five-year nursing undergraduates. In 1959, it set up the"Nursing School Affiliated to the Hospital of Sichuan Medical College"; in 1993, it resumed the enrolment of five-year nursing undergraduates; in 1996, the Department of Nursing of West China University of Medical Sciences was officially established; in 1998, it wasapproved to recruit students for the master degree in nursing discipline; in 1999, the School of Nursing of West China University of Medical Sciences was officially established; in 2006,the doctoral program in nursing was established; in 2009, the nursing discipline of West China Hospital was selected as the featured specialty at the national level; in 2010, its nursing discipline was listed in the first batch of clinical key specialties of the State; in 2011,the School was awarded the doctor's degree program in the first-level discipline of nursing; in 2012,the post-doctoral research station was officially established; in 2016, it was officially named theWest ChinaSchool of Nursing, Sichuan University; in 2017, the nursing discipline of Sichuan University was included in the"“Double First-Class" initiative" discipline construction projects under the Ministry of Education, and topped the ranking of the first-level disciplines of nursing in the same year.
Focusing on the discipline construction, theSchool is always devoted to cultural construction, nursing education, nursing research, international cooperation, building its supporting platforms and improving social reputation; up to now, it has formed a framework for cultivating high-calibre talents with the strong support of 4 hospitals and 15 teaching and research offices; created a discipline construction frameworkcomprising head nurses of department, head nurses of specialties and associate head nurses of specialties; and fostered a new force for the construction of nursing discipline through integration, innovation and inheritance. In the new era, theSchool is geared to push forward the construction of the nursing discipline with great passion and broad mind.
After years of persistent development, theSchool has formed a complete cultivation systemcovering undergraduate-master-doctoral-postdoctoral programs withnearly 40 supervisors. It has opened more than 40 courses for undergraduates and postgraduates, which are all taught in English. It has been granted the national-level programs for featured specialties and quality courses many times. Meanwhile, it has also the world-leading practice & experimental teaching simulation center, creating perfect and optimized teaching conditions for the training of top-notch talents. Since 1993, theSchool has trained over 2,000 high-calibre nursing talents.
Highlighting the construction of first-level disciplines, the School has formed five major secondary discipline systems in nine research directions. Through unremitting efforts, it strives to build the R&D platform and post-doctoral research stations meticulously, keep on developing nursing technologies and service mode, and transform technological results into clinical application. In such way the School has made great progress in the nursing construction. From 2017 to 2018, its nursing discipline ranked second in the Science and Technology Evaluation Matrics ( STEM) ranking for Chinese Hospitals.
The School has been positively expanding international exchanges and high-end cooperation. In recent years, it has established exchange and cooperation relationship with more than 30 universities and colleges from more than ten countries, including Germany, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Ireland, Denmark, Thailand and Singapore, and introduced many high-calibre domestic and foreign teachers to the students for learning advanced technologies, broadening vision and seeking for more cooperation opportunities.
The School always keeps in mind its original inspiration and mission. Faced with the challenges and opportunities in the new era, the School isforging ahead towards its dream ofbuilding a world-class, research-oriented nursingSchool with “Chinese characteristics, Sichuan University style, and West China brand”. With the concerted efforts of all the nursing staff, the School strives to cultivate outstanding nursing leaders who have China’s confidence, who are firm in their ideals and noble in their professional ethics, top in their professional competence, strong in innovation and broad in their minds, thus turning itself into a world-leading nursing school！
