CareForce Hosts Global Innovation Project

Three colleagues from the University of Washington Schools of Nursing and Social Work have been a part of a Global Innovation Fund project, supported by the UW Provost’s Office, that aims to support community-based care for older adults in Chongqing China. https://www.washington.edu/globalaffairs/gif-awards-2015/ Drs. Nancy Hooyman, Basia Belza, and Barbara Cochrane are involved in this grant (along with Scott Heinlein, President of the Seattle-Chongqing Sister City Association) and Ms. Lillian Prueher, a PhD student in Anthropology.

Chinese Scholars Visit Lynnwood Office

Three Chinese professionals — two nurses and a social worker — who are affiliated with a very large (i.e., 3000-bed) senior care facility in Chongqing came to Seattle this past September, 2016. As the Chongqing community does not have any organized or state sponsored home care or hospice, the UW faculty thought it might be useful for them to have a home health experience. One of our clients was gracious enough to agree to have these three Chinese health care professionals attend a CareForce home visit with one of our registered nurses during the time that one of our home health aides was caring for him. It proved to be highly educational and helpful and one of the highlights of their weeklong visits to agencies. The Chinese health care providers, their interpreter (a PhD student from the School of Nursing), and Nancy Hooyman, professor from the School of Social Work stated that this was an extremely interesting and a new experience for them.

Client Participation

One of the Chinese guests stated that she could not envision how nursing or aide care could be delivered in a home, so the experience helped solidify the concept in her mind. The client and his wife candidly and warmly answered questions and in a moment of pure luck, the therapist from the hospice organization that he is enrolled with arrived to provide some therapy. In addition, the Chinese Social Worker had an opportunity to explore social work practices here in the United States with our own social worker here at CareForce, something that had not occurred in their other community program visits during the week. It was a very exciting day here at CareForce and we feel blessed to have participated in some global learning about our country’s home health care system.