From March 5, 2017 to March 25, 8 the teachers and students of School of Nursing in our university went to Plymouth City College launching a three-week academic exchange on the "UK/China Dementia Care" project, which marked the first million-yuan international combination research project of our university launched officially.
Plymouth City College is one of the largest public universities in the UK—one of the affiliated colleges of the University of Plymouth. It is also the only secondary college that can recruit students independently. This college represents the most advanced dementia care theory and technology on Alzheimer's treatment, care and social participation in the UK.
During the three–week academic exchange, the teachers and the students of our university have taken part in the theoretical training called “InternationalDementiaTrainingHub” many times, listened to the reports of experts，professors, doctors and caregivers of dementia patients, directly learned the positive attitudes and specific practices from the UK in coping with Alzheimer's disease, and understood the present situations and measures of the family dementia care intuitively in England through the typical cases. The teachers and the students were also invited to attend the annual meeting of the International Conference on Alzheimer's disease and PDAA. Lina Wang, the associate professor of nursing, keynoted a speechin the international academic conference on behalf of our university. This was the first time that our nursing teachers and students showed the university style in the international academic conference, and also another important achievement of the "going out" strategy of Nursing College. At the same time, teachers and students carried out a field visit to each member institution of Dementia Care Alliance in Plymouth City and knew about the Care System of the dementia patients in Plymouth City thoroughly.
Apart from learning，teachers and students of our university had a further experience of the school life of teachers and students in City College of Plymouth, and interacted actively with teachers and students of City College. When it closed to the end of the activity, many students have made a deep friendship with the students in City College of Plymouth. Everybody exchanged the contacts with each other, cherished and enjoyed the overseas friendship they gained.
Foreign Affairs Office and the College of Nursing paid high attention to the International Combination Research Project, UK/China Dementia Care，contacted actively with City College of Plymouth and deployed carefully in the preliminary stage, which ensured that the activity could proceed successfully. School of Nursing rigorously elected and trained the teachers and the students for the first visit. Not only are they expected to bring back advanced concepts and methods on dementia care to home, but to take this opportunity to further strengthen cooperation and communication between two universities, and improve the strength of School of Nursing. In the International Conference about Alzheimer's disease, the active statement of our university's teachers won a good international reputation for our university. In the later periods, City College of Plymouth will send representatives of teachers and students to carry out field visit of medical institutions, pension institutions and social organizations in Huzhou one after another around the research topic, Chinese Dementia Care, and fulfill in-depth academic exchanges and discussion in order to develop global concepts and technologies about dementia care.