Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

SHENZHEN had a total of 54,649 licensed nurses at the end of 2023, according to the city’s public hygiene and health commission. Yesterday marked the 113th International Nurses Day.

These nurses, including 3,272 male nurses and 51,377 female nurses, were involved in 126.75 million outpatient and emergency treatments and 2.26 million hospitalizations in the city as of the end of 2023, the health authority said.

In addition, from Jan. 1 this year, nurse practitioners in Shenzhen can now order laboratory and diagnostic tests, prescribe external medications, and perform procedures within their authorized scope of practice, according to the city’s training and management measures for nurse practitioners.

This has made Shenzhen the first city in the country to give prescription rights to nurse practitioners through legislation.

Nurse practitioners refer to nurses with expertise and superb clinical skills in a niche or specialized nursing field who can directly provide high-quality nursing services to patients.

According to the city’s regulations, a nurse practitioner needs to have a bachelor’s degree or above in nursing, over five years of experience in clinical nursing, over two years of experience in specialty care positions, and obtain intermediate or above professional qualifications in nursing.

Shenzhen currently has specialty nursing clinics in more than a dozen fields such as emergency first aid, wound stoma, hemodialysis, and diabetes.

In recent years, Shenzhen has seen an increasing number of nurses with master’s and doctoral degrees and innovative patents. In January this year, the Eighth Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University in Shenzhen successfully recruited a candidate for a postdoctoral program in nursing.

The academic qualifications and professional titles of Shenzhen nurses are also higher than the provincial average.