31 October 2014

Tense days in Hong Kong

HONG KONG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT—It cannot have escaped any reader’s notice that Hong Kong has been volatile lately. My introduction to the “Umbrella Movement” was pictures of tear gas and riot police on BBC news reports. I instantly recognised Hong Kong’s administrative district, known as Central, thus the #OccupyCentral hashtag on Twitter.

Having been in Hong Kong for a week, I made sure I visited the site of the protesters, now relocated slightly to the district of Admiralty. It was a moving occasion. I was moved because I was here with my wife in 2003 when protesters first took to the streets—peacefully—and a million people marched through Admiralty and Central. I was impressed by the fact that the protesters made room for the bus we were on. We were traveling in the opposite direction, and they simply parted and let us through.

Protesters occupy Admiralty district of Hong Kong.
Umbrella Movement banner at the university.
Night view above Umbrella Movement protesters.
This time round, things have been brought to a standstill. Pictures that accompany this entry show some of the scenes I photographed. My government has been quiet about all this, except to express that Mainland China—to whom sovereignty was transferred in 1997—is showing restraint. Ironically, citizens of Hong Kong now have more democracy—albeit limited—then under British colonial rule. We did not allow them to vote at all.

Why we are here
As usual for this time of year, I have been teaching, together with Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, my University of Hull colleague, at Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU). It was a delight to be accompanied by Theofanis Fotis, PhD, senior lecturer, School of Health Sciences, from the University of Brighton. I first met Theo in Singapore (blog passim), and it was good fun to show him our version of Hong Kong.

Mark and I taught first-year students in HKPU’s Master of Nursing programme, dividing qualitative methods (Mark) and quantitative methods (me) between us. We also consulted with second-year students about their research projects.

I made a point of asking each group about the Umbrella Movement, and the reactions and responses were interesting. In typical Hong Kong fashion—modest, quiet, and unobtrusive, especially with “seniors”—they were reluctant to talk, but when I said I had visited the protesters, they opened up. Most had joined in at some point. Uncertain about the future, they were hopeful that nothing violent would take place. It is not my “fight,” but I am not hopeful. I cannot envisage China bending at all, and I worry, if it continues, how it will end.

Frequent flyers
Mark and I entertained Linda Sim, the head of Cathay Pacific’s frequent flyer Marco Polo Club—to dinner. We make this a regular feature of our visits to Hong Kong, to thank her and her team for excellent individualised service and to raise any concerns and questions we have. Frequent flying is serious business. We went to another of Hong Kong’s high-rise restaurants, Wooloomooloo Prime in Tsim Tsa Tsui. The view was stunning.

Buildings in Hong Kong are, for the most part, confusing to navigate—even after many years. Mark and I both had the experience of leaving our offices to attend a meeting, with a destination office number written on a slip of paper, only to realise after wandering about for a while that the meetings were being held in our own offices. If I told you Mark knocked on his own door, you would not believe me, but he did.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

17 October 2014

Australian Capital Territory: Like DC, only different

CANBERRA, Australia—Canberra, Australia’s capital city, divides opinion; there are those who love it and those who hate it. This is a planned city, designed by Walter Burley Griffin, an American, and the similarities to America’s capital city are striking.

Canberra, Australian Capital Territory (ACT), is more modern than Washington, District of Columbia (DC), and has some splendid art deco buildings—my favourite architecture. It also has more post-art deco structures, some of which, frankly, look like they came from the notebook of Albert Speer. Wide boulevards and the fact that the site of the Australian Parliament is called Capital Hill complete the effect. (In Washington, it’s spelled Capitol Hill.)

Walter Burley Griffin is again very much in the public eye here. Fifty years have passed since they named a nearby body of water Lake Burley Griffin. But Burley was Griffin’s middle name, not part of a double-barrelled surname, thus the campaign to rename Lake Burley Griffin simply Lake Griffin.

I get the impression that not much happens here in Canberra. All the political action on Capital Hill is reported in the national press, and The Canberra Times conveys a picture of rural idyllic living. That said, I’m putting my cards on the table and stating that—from my very limited experience of the place—I like Canberra. Being accommodated by ACT Health in the five-star luxury of Hyatt Hotel Canberra helps. Steeped in history, this hotel has been, for decades, the haunt of Australian politicians, many who resided here.

Fantastic art deco stairway in Hyatt Hotel Canberra. 
With its large, comfortable rooms, the hotel is a triumph of art deco style. My bathroom has French windows and is larger than many hotel rooms I have stayed in. The weather has been uncommonly cold—wet on my arrival—so I open the windows only to place my training shoes outside after returning from a run and to retrieve them before my next run, thus preventing the “what’s that smell?” smell my hotel rooms often get after a week or so. Running here is superb, and a loop, approximately four miles in length, goes from my hotel over two bridges that stand at either end of a section of the aforementioned Lake Burley Griffin. I was out at 6 a.m. this morning, and, along the south side of the lake, fitness classes were well underway with group and personal trainers.

ACT Nursing and Midwifery Research Centre Conference
I am here at the generous invitation of Australian Capital Region Health to give a keynote at the 3rd Biennial ACT Nursing and Midwifery Research Centre Conference. I gave that keynote yesterday and titled it “The path to publication.” On the previous day, I presented two workshops on social networking, including blogging, at the University of Canberra and Canberra Hospital.

This morning’s keynote address was presented by Christine Duffield, PhD, RN, who has an excellent track record in conducting nursing workforce research. Today’s address, probably the most authoritative lecture I have heard on the subject, ranged from the place of “assistants in nursing” (Duffield’s generic term for the unqualified, unlicensed “nursing” workforce) to advanced nurse practitioners. She provided a thorough look at nurse-patient ratios in Australia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland.

At dinner last night, we were entertained by speaker Matina Jewell. This outstandingly intelligent and articulate lady has an incredible story about her time in Lebanon as an unarmed United Nations treaty monitor, the horrific injuries she received in a military vehicle, and the death of all her comrades. Although she tells the story most nights, she is still moved to tears in retelling it. Her message is about recovering from hitting rock bottom with depression over the loss of her military career and survivor guilt over the loss of comrades she had been leading. She is on Twitter @matinajewell—as I write, I see she has just tweeted me a message—and she deserves more followers than she has.

Hanging smart
I have done little climbing this year and, for the first year since a horrific accident that took place eight years ago, none outdoors. But my genes have been climbing. My oldest daughter, Hannah, recently spent a week in the Pre-Pyrenees in Spain, and her sister Emily has just returned from the Bavarian Alps. I seem to find little time to climb these days, and two trips each to Hong Kong and China, together with trips to Puerto Rico, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia before the first quarter of 2015, will probably further limit climbing. However, the spirit is willing even if the flesh is usually in an airport.

The extent to which my family travels is now becoming a standing joke. At dinner last weekend, my oldest daughter asked where I was flying to this week, and I responded “Dubai,” which was my first stop on the way to Australia. I asked her the same and she said, “Dubai!” We were in Dubai airport within 12 hours of each other.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.

03 October 2014

Still in the UK

I returned to the United Kingdom from Italy, via London, on Friday, 26 September, and spent one night in the Waldorf Hilton in central London, courtesy of the Saudi Arabian Cultural Bureau. On Saturday morning, the 27th, I gave a talk to several hundred Saudi Arabian students about challenges faced in building a research career and being an editor. This was the inaugural conference of the Scientific Society for Saudi Students in the UK—the next one will convene at the end of January—and the conference was addressed by Saudi Cultural Attaché Faisal Abalkhail. Later, I was interviewed for a film clip that will be used in future publicity.

It was interesting to share with the students that I had visited Saudi Arabia before, during the First Gulf War as a member of the British Forces Middle East, and that I had visited their country since and was planning to again visit in April 2015. Two days later, I was back in London for a meeting of the Lancet Commission on UK Nursing, and two days after that I was back for my first meeting of the Army Nursing Research Professoriate.

Some members of the Lancet Commission on UK Nursing hard at work.
The Lancet Commission is taking shape. We hope to have a substantial amount of writing done by the end of the year and to spend 2015 finalising our report and filling in any gaps in our background information. The proceedings will remain confidential until we publish the report. Once the Research Excellence Framework meetings are finished—and I will be in London next week for the final one—the Lancet Commission moves to the top of my agenda.

Members of the Army Nursing Research Professoriate, notably: Col. Alan Finnegan, front left; Hugh McKenna, chair, 2014 Research Excellence Framework, second row, right; and Col. Breckenridge-Sproat, front, second right.
The Army Nursing Research Professoriate exists to bring together military and civilian people who have an interest in military nursing research. The group was initiated and is led by Col. Alan Finnegan, PhD, QARANC, who is also an honorary professor at the University of Chester in the UK and a member of the Lancet Commission. We were very lucky to have a member of U.S. military personnel present, Col. Sara Breckenridge-Sproat, PhD, RN, regional nurse executive, Europe Regional Medical Command, the Army Surgeon General’s consultant for nursing research.

In the evening, we were invited to the annual cocktail party of Queen Alexandra’s Royal Army Nursing Corps (the QAs), which was held at the Royal Hospital Chelsea, home of the famous Chelsea pensioners. Col. Finnegan had the pleasure of meeting my daughter Lucy, an officer in the QAs, at the hospital in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan, while on a visit there during her tour of duty. The professoriate has ambitious plans for research and publication, and, already, there are several very interesting projects underway with publications beginning to appear.

One more week in the United Kingdom, and my travels start again with a short visit to Canberra, Australia, from where I will post my next entry.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International. Comments are moderated. Those that promote products or services will not be posted.