Elsevier today announced the launch of Elderly Care China, an online platform that delivers nursing education to address the growing demand for quality geriatric care management services in China. The research publishing and information analytics company will initially introduce an online version of Elderly Care China with plans to extend the solution across a mobile platform and other point terminals.

At launch, the syllabus will focus on nursing education content centered on geriatric management around daily care, preventive care, mental health issues and neurological diseases. This will gradually expand to include syllabus related to other geriatric-specific conditions. 

In addition, the content will be regularly refreshed with information arising from the latest regulatory and industry framework to help China's geriatric care professionals keep current and updated with the latest developments.

WHY IT MATTERS

China has more than 40 million disabled and semi-disabled elderly people and falls short of the 1:4 nursing staff to elderly ratio recommended by the Ministry of Civil Affairs. With only an estimated 4.45 million number of nursing care professionals available by the end of 2019, at least an additional 10 million geriatric care nurses are needed.

To bridge this gap, Elsevier developed the Elderly Care China digital solution to equip China's nursing professionals with quality, comprehensive and practical skills training in an interactive format to meet the requirement and standards of China's elderly care management.

THE LARGER TREND

According to a paper titled ‘Dilemmas for nurses in China’ that was published by The Lancet in 2018, the authors argue that although the number of registered nurses has dramatically increased in recent years, the shortage of well trained nurses has not been effectively addressed in China. 

Ways to improve the training for nurses, increase their income, improve their working conditions, and address the gender imbalance are the ongoing unmet nursing challenges for the health-care reform in the country.

In 2018, Elsevier partnered with Beijing University of Chinese Medicine to create a new taxonomy for traditional Chinese medicine in Elsevier's biomedical and pharmacological literature database, Embase, Healthcare IT News reported.

ON THE RECORD

“Elderly Care China meets the needs of China's elderly care industry for educational content in terms of content authority, localization and practical application. We believe that Elsevier can continue to enrich the teaching content of Elderly Care China and help the cultivation of elderly care professionals in China,” said Prof. Guifang Guo, Peking University School of Nursing in a statement.

Kok Keng Lim, Asia Pacific Managing Director of Health Solutions, Elsevier, said: “Elsevier continues to combine technology with quality content to deliver highly innovative and customized solutions that provide geriatric care professionals in China with quick and convenient access to authoritative literature that they can feel totally confident of when administering personalized care management services to the aged. Providing better and quality elderly care management services is one of China's key priorities to improve the country's population health and standards, and Elsevier will continue to deliver the right solutions to contribute meaningfully to the Healthy China 2030 mission.”