Heat, humidity, and innovation

HONG KONG—The ability of Hong Kong residents to fall asleep instantly on a train and awaken at their station amazes me. This week, I am living in Sha Tin, in the New Territories of Hong Kong, and commuting to Hung Hom to work at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (HKPU). The 20-minute train journey, which begins at Lo Wu, on the border with mainland China, is packed in the mornings. Those who get a seat simply close their eyes and sleep. Most of those standing stare at the screen of their mobile phone. I simply cannot imagine the Far East and Southeast Asia before the mobile phone. It is the same wherever I go in this part of the world. Whether in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong or Taiwan, the people’s dedication to mobile technology puts even my own technology-addicted children to shame.

Hong Kong Polytechnic University is a lively place. Recruitment days, graduations, celebrations—there is always something happening in its concourses. In a decade of visiting this campus, I cannot recall a time when there was not a new building being erected. To the present, these have always been in neat red brick. However, the most recent addition is Innovation Tower, which is drawing attention in the design world.

Innovation is a key word here, and it is also demonstrated in the exclusive Hotel ICON, built by HKPU to train students of hotel management in the environment of a five-star luxury hotel. The basement Asian buffet is great for lunch and, over dinner, the views from the high-level Above & Beyond are fabulous. HKPU has recently entered the Twittersphere and has been tweeting about our visit and our seminars.

The schedule at HKPU is heavy. I am here with my University of Hull colleague Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, to teach in a preregistration master’s nursing programme. But teaching here is not the same as back home. In the Far East and Southeast Asia, it is rare for students to ask questions in class; they would never dream of interrupting you. Instead, they queue up after the lecture and ask questions, individually. Generating audience participation is virtually impossible, and the most direct question is usually met with silence. This difference in culture is one adjustment you have to make to your teaching here; everything is very formal.

Alex Molasiotis

Students enrolled in the programme are all graduates and employees of the prestigious Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital. Luckily, the hospital has requested that some of the teaching be provided by international scholars, so, for several years, we have visited twice annually. The students are bright and challenging, with varied academic backgrounds. They are a pleasure to teach and have no difficulty asking questions, but always after the lecture. I was pleased to hear from Alex Molasiotis, PhD, RN, head of the school of nursing, that the contract has been renewed for a few years.

Mark Hayter focuses on qualitative methods and I on quantitative methods. Therefore, my sessions cover the concepts of measurement, study designs, and statistics. I also give a presentation to new intakes of master’s and undergraduate students on a systematic approach to studying anatomy and physiology. This is something I want to work up into a more concise presentation and then publish something to accompany it.

I have published several books on anatomy and physiology, but I have a passion to convey the logic of anatomy and the relationship between structure, function, and control. As I write for my “Four things about ...” blog, which is about a simple approach to anatomy and physiology, I am encouraged by the number of hits (87,335). There was a public holiday during our visit, and I used the time to revise one of my online lectures on homeostasis, which is linked to the blog. We were both invited to give seminars; Mark delivers one on sexual health, and mine is on activities of daily living.

The weather is unusually warm for this time of year, and the humidity is high. Local colleagues assure us that it is getting cooler, but running for several miles means you end up drenched in sweat and severely dehydrated, with a core temperature above the physiological norm. Even after a cold shower, it takes an hour to cool down. If you arrive at a social event within that hour, you look as if you have been swimming—fully clothed.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.

The importance of chance encounters

UNIVERSITY OF HULL, UK—As a young academic at the University of Edinburgh in the early 1990s, I attended the Royal College of Nursing of the United Kingdom Research Society Conference in Birmingham, UK. An argument with a taxi driver over the fare meant that I walked to my accommodation under a very dark cloud.

Walking in the opposite direction to me was a man, clearly of Chinese origin, who looked as if he wanted to speak—the last thing I wanted to do. However, he introduced himself as the PhD student of a colleague and good friend of mine in Glasgow, which brightened my mood a little, and we spoke for a few minutes.

More than 10 years later, I found myself sitting opposite him, unaware of who he was, at lunch in Hong Kong, and he recalled that we had met. His name was Thomas Wong. One of the most influential figures in nursing in Hong Kong, he was professor and head of nursing at Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He has, variously, chaired the Nursing Council, been dean of his faculty of health care and a vice president of the university. Currently, he is president of Tung Wah College in Hong Kong.

I have just returned from one of many visits to Hong Kong, my previous visit being the subject of an earlier blog. I was undertaking visiting-professor duties at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, where nursing is now led by another friend and colleague, Professor Alex Molasiotis. Clearly of Greek origin, Alex is a leading expert in cancer and palliative care nursing, with an outstanding CV and previous working experience in Hong Kong and mainland China. We met unexpectedly in Singapore and found a common interest in the Far East and Southeast Asia, and also my hometown of Hull, UK, where Alex studied for his master’s degree and still has family links.

Courtesy of the Cathay Pacific long-haul flight to the United Kingdom from Hong Kong, I was reflecting on the past decade, during which I have made more than 50 visits to Hong Kong. I thought about the important place that this unique and extraordinary Special Administrative Region of China (and former British colony) has had on my personal and professional life.

Personally, it is a place that is now familiar to my wife and several of my children; where I feel almost as “at home” as I do at home. Professionally, the influence Hong Kong has had on my career is obvious. It has been for me, literally, the gateway to the Far East, Southeast Asia and Australasia since, at the invitation of Professor David Thompson, then of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, I found myself in Hong Kong for the first time.

Since then, I have collaborated on research grant applications and publications with colleagues across the Far East and Southeast Asia. I am now a part-time professor in Australia and a visiting professor in Singapore. People like Thomas Wong—who I very nearly ignored the first time I met him—and Alex Molasiotis, together with countless others who took the time to get to know me—thankfully, I reciprocated—have kept me constantly engaged in activities that are amongst the most rewarding of my professional life.

If this blog entry has a moral, it is this: Never underestimate the next person you meet, never ignore people at conferences, and set no limits on where your next conversation may lead you, professionally and geographically.

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.