Kiang Wu Nursing College of Macau (KWNC) and Escola Luso-Chinesa Tecnico-Profissional (ELCTP) of Macau are going to co-establish the “Health Care Course” (Curso de Cuidados de Saude) for secondary Grade 4 students in Academic Year 2014/2015. The course will be available for application from 3 March 2014.

To introduce this newly co-established course, a press conference was held at ELCTP on 26 February 2014, attended by administrators of the two institutions. At the conference, Director Chan Ieng Lon of ELCTP pointed out that on account of the increased variety of diseases and the extended number of social issues resulted from ageing population in recent years, as well as the expected increase in the number of community medical centres and the inauguration of the fourth hospital in Macao in the near future, the local society is in pressing need for health care technicians. He hopes that the co-established health care course will provide learning opportunities for adolescents who are interested in developing a career in the health care field. Moreover, in response to the long-term development needs of Macao’s nursing profession, he hopes that the course will serve as a means to attract more students to participate in pursuit of nursing studies. Furthermore, Director Chan anticipates that the course will provide students with broad development prospects because upon completion of the course students may either choose to undertake health care related jobs or further their studies by enrolling on the Bachelor of Science in Nursing Programme of KWNC.

KWNC Vice-President Xing Zhihong indicated that the new student applications for nursing programme have increased obviously in recent years. In an effort to provide more opportunities for adolescents to get involved in nursing studies, KWNC works together with ELCTP for the first time. Through this collaboration, KWNC wishes to arouse adolescents’ interests in nursing when they are still in secondary school. In addition, it is hoped that more kind-hearted and competent health care technicians will then be nurtured to satisfy society’s demand for different levels of health care professionals.

KWNC Executive Officer Lau Gar Bo introduced that the course will mainly focus on topics of nursing care, including dietary care, first aid care and elderly care. She added that in addition to theory lectures, practicum is also one of the essential components of the course to strengthen students’ professional knowledge and skills. As a result, KWNC will arrange secondary Grade 6 students of the course to perform practice in hospitals, and thereby enable them to be better prepared for providing efficient and high quality health care services in the future.

Representatives who were in attendance at the press conference included Director Chan Ieng Lon and Deputy Director Pun Vai Nim of ELCTP, Vice-President Xing Zhihong, Executive Officer Lau Gar Bo and Deputy Executive Officer Cheong Hoi Ieng of KWNC. For details of the application procedures, please call on 2845 6071 during office hours.