En route to London from Italy

BRITISH AIRWAYS FLIGHT 2869—I ran out of two things these past two weeks: energy and enthusiasm. As I write this, I am on the journey home from Genoa in northern Italy to London’s Gatwick Airport in the United Kingdom, having spent a week in Italy teaching and consulting with colleagues at the University of Genoa. After posting my previous blog entry about my time in Taiwan, I spent a week in Hong Kong, two nights at Heathrow Airport, and then this week in Genoa.

My energy has been at low ebb for most of this three-week journey. It took most of my two weeks in the Far East to overcome jet lag and then, after returning to Europe, I underwent another bout, from which I am only now recovering. I am not looking for sympathy—most of my international work is self-imposed—but I am a lot older now than when I started these years of intensive international work.

I completed the week in Hong Kong with colleague Mark Hayter, PhD, RN, FAAN, and, after fitting in a variety of dinners and breakfasts with old friends and colleagues, Mark and I flew home. Formal links with Hong Kong Polytechnic University are now concluded, but I return to Hong Kong in June to work with the University Grants Committee, and I will continue to advise the university’s Research Assessment Exercise.

Regaining inspiration

As usual, I ran the Corsa Italia several times in Genoa, mostly in darkness, as the days were quite short. The PhD students here are an inspiration to work with. For my past two visits, they have been working on a rapid review, applying the principles of rapid evidence assessment. They work as a group, with my support, and they are in the process of producing for publication a very good review on the influence of the clinical learning environment on nursing students’ competence with regard to patient safety.

Members of my PhD class at the University of Genoa
working hard on a rapid evidence assessment review.

Next week, the RN4CAST@IT will be launched at the University of Genoa, and Walter Sermeus, PhD, is coming from the University of Leuven in Belgium to help with the launch. RN4CAST, which was inspired by and involves the work of Linda Aiken, PhD, RN, FRCN, FAAN, has been very effective across Europe in providing evidence for the effectiveness of nursing care and the value of graduate nurses. I played a small part in the project by putting my Genovese colleagues in contact with Sermeus and Aiken.

Summing up, after 17 podcasts, 10 lectures, keynotes and plenaries, and a rejection of a major paper on the effect of sampling on Mokken scaling (to be continued), in addition to keeping up with all my work as acting associate dean for research at Hull, I am returning to my family with the prospect of five weeks at home, which will be a joy. My travel responsibilities during those weeks will be limited to obtaining visas for forthcoming visits to China and Saudi Arabia and preparing lectures for those visits. Life is busy and never dull.

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.

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.