Chinese medics, Rwanda nurses mark International Nurses Day

The Chinese medical team at Rwanda’s Masaka and Kibungo hospitals joined colleagues at the Baotou Center Hospital in China virtually on Wednesday, May 10, 2023, to celebrate International Nurses Day. This year, the team from China consists of 15 medics; 10 of them were deployed to Masaka, and five to Kibungo Hospital in the Eastern Province. They are set to work closely with their Rwandan counterparts to provide quality medical services and exchange experiences in medical practice with one another. ALSO READ: Chinese medics perform painless delivery in Rwanda Rwanda will officially celebrate the day on Friday, May 12—its annual date— under the theme “Our Nurses. Our Future”. Jia Jianhong, the translator of the medical team, said that Chinese medics in Rwanda want to collaborate with local nurses to learn from each other and improve health services. ALSO READ: Chinese medical team rotates in Rwanda. “We want to collaborate with local medical people, especially people from the nursing department. We used this special day to improve our understanding, and our friendly relationships. We want to share knowledge and experiences from China. We want to learn from the nursing departments in Africa, in Rwanda. We want to learn from Rwanda and Rwanda to learn from us to be beneficial,” he said. ALSO READ: How Rwanda, China ties have impacted health sector. Marie Christine Nyirambonyinka, the head of nurses at Masaka Hospital, lauded the partnership with the Chinese medical team. “We joined the Chinese medical team to celebrate Nurses’ Day. We welcome the pledge to partner with us and I hope we will gain more knowledge as Rwanda and Chinese nurses share experience,” she said. Partnership with East African Christian College Jianhong disclosed that they are seeking to work with East African Christian College in terms of partnership in education. The college has a faculty of health sciences with options such as an advanced diploma in general nursing and midwifery and a Bachelor of Science in nursing and midwifery. “If we teach the medical personnel here, and share our technology and experiences, there will be more locally skilled people. This is because ten members of our medical team can teach a hundred or even a thousand local people, and those thousand local people can train thousands more,” he noted. He stated that the Chinese medics are prepared to share medical knowledge in any hospital or university that teaches health sciences and that there is a need for more people to assist as translators between the Chinese language and Kinyarwanda. In March 2023, the 23rd Chinese medical team dispatched to Rwanda was warmly received by local patients at the Masaka Hospital in the suburbs of Kigali for the free clinic they provided. ALSO READ: Masaka hospital: An epitome of Rwanda-China’s people-to-people ties. The Chinese medical team and Rwandan doctors also held a virtual meeting on anesthesiology with doctors from the People’s Hospital in northern China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to share ideas and best practices on administering anesthesia and managing pain during surgical procedures. Hundreds of local patients turned up at the free clinic, where they received medical care, including blood pressure checks, glucose, and cholesterol screenings, as well as consultations with healthcare professionals about their health concerns. Chinese doctors working in Rwanda also recently performed a painless delivery of a baby for a pregnant mother at Masaka Hospital. In 2022, the team of Chinese medics sent by their government to Rwanda treated over 12,291 patients. In 1982, the Chinese government initiated a program of sending medical teams to Rwanda on an annual basis, as part of the efforts to enhance cooperation in the health sector. According to information from the Chinese Embassy, the non-stop medical program has seen more than half a million patients treated over the past 40 years.

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Chinese medics, Rwanda nurses mark International Nurses Day