When the silver-haired and black hair encounter, composing the beautiful movement of life together
"The most important thing is to take people as the core, take sincere care and give accompany to them. In this way, the elders and residents of the community can feel warm through the continuous interaction and connection with the teachers and students, and make the Chinese Medical University not only just the key position with medical resources in central Taiwan but also become a trigger for community health that makes the community better because of us," said Li Zheng Chun. As the program host who specializes in neurology and sees all the suffering of dementia patients and their families, he carefully commented on the spirit of the plan.
Go into the alleys of the community and actually involved in the operation of the long-term care system
Three years ago, we observed some severe problems: the serious aging of the local community around the school, the aging index and the elderly population growing rapidly, the migration of younger populations, and a series of social problems such as the care of the elderly, disability and dementia. Due to these issues, we established bases in the local community as the practice field for nurturing students. We train them to gain the knowledge and ability of elderly and long-term care, combining the expertise of teachers and students across disciplinary, flipping the traditional curriculum, integrating the characteristics of the school: traditional Chinese medicine(TCM). We adopt the dual track of prevention and care in addition to assisting the community to improve the quality of long-term care, it also cultivates talents in the field of long-term care. This year, the team members have been expanded, cooperating with the technology and information industry, introducing smart technology into courses and applications, and adding elements of innovation and entrepreneurship. Therefore, despite the raging epidemic this year, teachers and students are still taking advantage of the situation. By recording high-quality audio-visual health education methods, in addition to achieving the effect of community teaching, it can also combine learning, service, and epidemic prevention.
Furthermore, ever since the epidemic has been brought under control, we have also actively integrated the resources of schools and the attached hospitals. We adopt a blended approach, that is, combining both face-to-face and online learning and service models. The purpose is to guide students to design activities and teaching materials and continue to promote elderly health care in the community. For instance, 13 events were conducted, including traditional Chinese herbal diet and regimen related activities designed in response to the epidemic, including the production of aromatic all-purpose ointment and essential oil dry-cleaning hands. Moreover, through the use of audio and video, the elders can continue to perform traditional Chinese medicine exercises such as Baduanjin at home, to keep health and health care uninterrupted.
Making good use of the strengths of Chinese medicine; enhancing the knowledge of smart care On the care side, we are designing a series of online courses, and also cooperating with the industry. Our purpose is to enhance the ability of home care aids to apply TCM care knowledge, especially to relieve symptoms of discomfort, facilitate comfort, and use evidence-based care measures to prevent comorbidities. For instance, we offer courses like acupressure, Massage, and Tuina, etc. to improve the quality of long-term home care. Besides, we offer internship courses to allow students to develop long-term care practical knowledge and cross-field learning capabilities and to give full play to their learning and expertise. In this way, we not only implement university social responsibilities, the students can also enhance their future career choices and become more competitive. The following is a sharing by one of the students who had completed the course and now working part-time at a long-term care institution:
"I have been taking Long-Term Care Course since my sophomore year. In addition to allowing us to better understand the importance and trends of long-term care, this course also used diverse methods to help us learn. For example, in one of the semesters, I took a course called "long-term care, basic practice & internship". In this class, we not only learned about theory, it also offers online technology, which allows us to self-study, as well as provides classrooms to demonstrate technical exercises and license simulation. After finishing the course, the teacher also arranged for us to practice in a long-term care institution.
After completing the internship, I took the exam and obtained the C-level license, and worked as an attendant during this summer vacation. This valuable learning process has given me a deeper understanding of the families' needs for long-term care, and I deeply appreciate their hardship. I am very honored to be able to lighten the elders and family members' burden through caring skills. I cherish this learning experience. I hope that in the future I will have the opportunity to contribute what I have learned and develop it into the field of long-term care."
Stimulate interest in entrepreneurship
As global aging become more and more severe, the long-term care industry needs more talent's participation. We use courses to cultivate students' interest and abilities and arouse their interest in entrepreneurship. Li Xiaoting, a master's student who is also the head of the home care institution, told us her aspirations.
"In the master's class, I took several courses related to improving the quality and management of long-term care and strengthened my ability. One of the courses was integrated with the plan of the Ministry of Education. It not only has a solid theoretical foundation but also arranges practical internships. The internship experience particularly leads me to intelligent management and learned a lot about improving the care's skills. The continuous improvement in quality and care quality has also made me more confident to continue to devote myself to my home care career. The learning process also aroused the enthusiasm of my classmates, some are now conceiving how to set up the long term daycare center. Some students hope to return to their hometown Yunlin or Pingtung to contribute what they have learned and open nursing clinics and long-term care institutions in rural areas to apply what they have learned."
With Double P (person-based and problem based) as the core, we are committed to promoting the dual track of prevention and care. Teachers and students of China Medical University work together to achieve the original intention of creating a healthy life circle for the elderly in the local community.