Chairman's Message

Mr. CHENG Bing-shu

We wish you all the best for the Year of the Snake!

In its consultation document on health reform, the Government proposes some major changes which address many of the long-existing problems in Hong Kong's health care system, such as strengthening preventive care and developing community-based integrated services. The point most relevant to our Society's mission is the proposal "to require all health care professionals to undertake continuing professional education and development to update their knowledge and skill" in order to ensure the quality of health care services. There is no question about the need for continuing education and professional development. This is not only because we need to "strengthen public confidence", but also because of ever changing practice and increasing demand for quality of health care. To implement the proposed requirements for continuing education for nurses, it is anticipated that a comprehensive system of mandatory continuing nursing education (CNE) needs to be established with the associated changes in the Nurses Registration Ordinance. In the near future, our Society will be conducting a survey of nurses' view about CNE issues so that the Society can reflect these views to the Government. We hope that nursing colleagues will actively participate in this survey.

We have just started to invite hospitals and health care institutions to write to the Newsletter to share their experience of organising and conducting CNE. We are very pleased to publish some of these papers in this issue of the Newsletter, and expect to share further views in the coming issues. We would like to invite comments from colleagues about this important issue.