Trainee Operating Department Practitioners visit China

Edge Hill's relationship with one of the oldest institutions of higher learning in China, Nanjing University, has gone from strength to strength over recent years, so it was with great excitement that three of our students swapped Armstrong House in Manchester for this ancient cultural city.

Trainee Operating Department Practitioners (ODPs) Ashurst, Pat Markham and Beverley Axford-Hawkes visited Nanjing to see for themselves how healthcare provision and operating procedures took place in the East China region. The trip proved an invaluable learning experience for the trio who are specialising as anaesthetic practitioners as it provided them with a unique opportunity to visit a functioning operating theatre.

Despite any barriers of language, social privileges or economic conditions our students found that with the globalised methods of healthcare training, as well as the state-of-the-art equipment they had become used to throughout their studies at Edge Hill, they could have easily worked side-by-side with the Chinese medical team. 

Rita Hehir, Operating Department Practice Senior Lecturer said: "Throughout their trip Deanne, Pat and Bev where excellent ambassadors for the Faculty of Health here at Edge Hill University. Following such a positive experience we are looking to develop further opportunities with Nanjing University in the future."