On July 16, Huaxi-Hawson ICU Summer Camp is in full swing and exploration is upgraded. Let’s see what happens on the second day of the excursion.

Today, the students will follow their mentors to look back on the ups and downs of Western China Hospital over the past 124 years, further study the “Weapon Pedigree” of respiratory support devices, and go to the ICU “battlefield”.

Image ICU

Look beneath the surface of things, find out the sticking point through images.

As a basic skill, reading X-ray images is of course an indispensable part for ICU staff.

After experiencing the busy morning shift between departments at 7:50 a.m., Prof. Kang Yan takes the students on a “Image ICU” trip to analyze and discuss the information on the X-ray image of a patient.

What Makes an ICU ‘War Wolf’?

In the ICU, there is also the same heroism as the movie War Wolf.

What makes ICU “War Wolves”? Being a "specialty force" in hospital departments, ICU staff are always racing ahead with an impression that they are willing to do whatever it takes and keep on fighting in spite of all setbacks. The motivation behind all this comes from constant learning, induction and re-learning.

Professor Yin Wanhong and Professor Xie Xiaoqi from the ICU Department introduce the nuts and bolts of ICU Department and compares it to “a special troop in the medical profession”. Professor Yin says that ICU doctors are always faced with new challenges. They must be familiar with the basic theories and emergency rescue skills of general specialties like medicine and surgery and develop critical skills, for instance, organ protection, patient maintenance and adjustment. 

"As effective as a CPU", describes the professor. You must be very careful, as if treading on thin ice. ICU doctors use the most sophisticated equipment such as respirator and hemodialysis to diagnose the patient's situation as fast and efficiently as a running CPU. A special force should be established in clinical knowledge, consolidate the power of hospital departments, and learn to use cutting-edge techniques.

100-Years-Old WCH: Visit to History Gallery

How could one not want to understand its past and present when coming to WCH?

The hospital has survived the flames of war, gone through name change and amalgamation many times, and developed constantly since its founding. What remains unchanged is its culture–patriotic, unassuming, tolerant, progressive–which has stood the test of time.

The students are fortunate to meet Mr Liao Zhilin, head of WCH’s Propaganda and United Front Work Department.

Liao Zhilin: incumbent director of the Propaganda and United Front Work Department of the West China Hospital of Sichuan University and associate research fellow; reporter of the Health News Sichuan branch and member of the Special Committee on Health Communication of Chinese Medical Doctor Association. Having been engaged in hospital propaganda for more than 20 years and talked with or received numerous Chinese and foreign journalists. His academic research is focused on hospital communication strategies and tactics. Mr Liao is able to dissect and examine the public opinion environment of hospitals across China and operate and manage WCH propaganda using his dual identities as media reporter and hospital propaganda director. He wrote 1,000 literary works and press releases, 20 hospital management papers at least, and published a monograph named When a Doctor Encounters a Reporterin 2016. Mr Liao is the gold metal lecturer of the Hospital Communication Strategy, a course opened by the Business School of Sichuan University and West China School of Medicine, SCU. He has given over 300 lectures on "Hospital News Crisis Management", "Hospital New Media Operation and Management", "Hospital News Planning" and other topics in more than 20 cities nationwide.

Led by Mr Liao, the students have visited the History Gallery of the hospital that has recorded the trials and hardships and glorious moments of the Hospital in the past 124 years from its establishment. It is a vivid, touching and informative history textbook and a source of inspiration that drives all the hospital faculty and staff to keep moving forward.

He introduces that, after more than 120 years of unremitting efforts generation after generation, WCH has been gradually developed into China’s first-class and world-renowned medical school/hospital with a complete range of disciplines, abundant qualified teaching staff, exquisite medical art, and strong scientific research ability. The hospital comes out at the top of the national hospital rankings. Many well-known scholars and professionals who enjoy a high reputation throughout the nation and the rest of the world are working for it. For example, ashley w Lindsay, founder of Chinese dentistry, and professor Chen Zhiqian, father of Chinese public health.

At the end of the visit to the History Gallery, Mr Liao hopes that the students can have a deeper understanding of the school/hospital through his in-depth sharing today, and sincerely wishes them a bright future and one day they could work at the hospital to carry forward the spirit of WCH people.

How can we make good use of the ultimate weapon in ICU? In the afternoon, Mr Liang Guopeng teaches the students how to use a wide variety of ICU breathing "weapons" such as non-invasive ventilator, cofflator, invasive ventilator, step machine, and mechanical exsufflator, among other respiration trainers and artificial airways.

Over two days of academic discussions, the students have combined learning with doing and gained a deeper understanding of critical care medicine.

What a wonderful day! Tomorrow is the last day of the summer camp. Don’t forget to follow us to stay updated.