Associate Professor & Students Collaborate with Colleagues in Macau, China
Zim Okoli, PhD, MPH, MSN, RN, CTTS, associate professor, and students traveled to Macau, China to collaborate with several research colleagues.
"In the first picture, we visited the Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau and met up with one of my colleagues (Dr. Aimei Mao) who is a tobacco researcher (focuses on Secondhand smoke exposure policies among mothers in rural areas of China). Dr. Aimei Mao completed her Postdoctoral studies in Nursing at the University of British Columbia and she is the main reason that we have the MOU with Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau. We discussed with Dr. Mao about nursing research and the undergraduate nursing research internship program at the UK CON (Mady has been my nursing research intern since Fall 2018).
The second picture is about the students getting involved in a simulation activity regarding a patient who has a Myocardial Infarction. Amidst language and cultural differences, they had a blast working in teams with nursing students from other countries to perform CPR!
In the third picture, we visited an organization CARITAS International which provides care for individuals with mental illnesses and intellectual disabilities. https://www.caritas.org.mo/en The organization is run by Catholic Nuns. The current nuns are actually originally from India and it was such a delight to see the wonderful work they are doing."
Visiting the Kiang Wu Hospital - July 11, 2019
"Today, Rachel and Mady presented with respective 'hackathon' groups. The topic was on developing technologies that could aid the elderly in achieving 'healthy aging'. Rachel's group came up with an app to connect 'Empty nesters' (which in Asia translates more to the elderly who live alone, independent of their children) with 'tailor-made' programs that would meet their specific needs.
Mady's group came up with an innovative smart watch (like an apple watch) with face-recognition software that would respond to the mental health needs of the elderly. There were six hackathon groups and it is impressive to see the creative solutions they developed. It made me realize that our nursing students have a lot of really good ideas for innovative changes in practice!
In the afternoon, we took a historic tour of Macau. Macau is a former Portuguese colony that was settled in the 1500s, and given back to China in 1999. Its main industry is gambling (it makes about 148 Billion dollars a year from gambling) and the government takes a health 40% tax from the casinos."
