方怡珺
林立伟
王亮
朱刚
刘晓龙
Yijun Fang Pharmacy Manager
Shanghai United Family Hospital

After graduating from the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in St. John's University, I worked at hospitals and pharmacies in New York for nearly ten years before returning to Shanghai with my husband. In addition to destiny, the reason I chose to join UFH from among so many hospitals is that its foreign background and development platform were very attractive to me. From 2006 until now, I have developed with the hospital for 12 years.

The Best Parts of the Job are the Little Things

After working abroad nearly for ten years and returning home to join UFH, the biggest difference I noticed between workplaces was that the members of my current team are more like family members. What touched me was the positive power of loving to learn. When they realized that the foreign skills I used in my work could better serve the patients, they all became students at once and wrote down these practical methods and theories. I believe that it is the sense of mission and pioneering passion that everyone at UFH shares which make its high-quality medical services possible, raising it to the level of the benchmark and opinion leader of the high-end medical industry in China.

As well as a comfortable working atmosphere, UFH has leaders who are worthy of following in order to develop. Over the past 12 years working at UFH, my leader has consistently given me a more challenging task every time I was about touch the ceiling. I remember last year I not only had to finish a new project but also met JCI authentication, and I was deeply troubled by this. My leader offered to help me clarify my thoughts, and my colleagues also helped me in time. It was an unforgettable experience which taught me that an enterprising leader won’t limit their employees’ minds but give them more opportunities to try out more ideas.

The Democratic and Professional Environment Makes Me Better

UFH intends to build a platform in China which combines advanced Chinese and Western medical concepts, offering a service-oriented medical institution with a focus on the patients. Influenced by this vision and the democratic and professional environment, the team members here respect the power of professionalism from top to bottom. Distinguished from normal hospitals in China, everyone at UFH can use their own power to provide the patients with better services. For example, as a pharmacist, I give medicine to patients. At the same time, I’m also responsible for double-checking the doctors’ prescriptions. Depending on the big database of patient information stored at UFH, I must ensure that every dose of medicine administered to the patients is proper and correct.

The principles of ‘I CARE’ not only embrace the commitment and care that UFH gives to its patients, but also the working atmosphere we try to create. Working at UFH, you can speak freely and express your thoughts, and as long as your creative ideas are beneficial for promoting better work, your leader and colleagues will actively understand and implement them. When a female colleague is going through a special period (such as pregnancy), we spontaneously provide her with care. All kinds of amicable things happen at UFH every day, and working in this kind of atmosphere makes for a better me.

Today, I am proud of the choice I made 12 years ago.

Catherine Gao Head Nurse
Shanghai United Family Hospital

My Career in Nursing

I began my career as a nurse in one of the top hospitals in Shanghai after I graduated from nursing school in 2003. I worked hard there for several years and made great progress. I took care of many patients who were in urgent and critical condition and many who had just undergone major surgical procedures. I also gave medical care to entrepreneurs, municipal government officials and foreigners in our hospital’s VIP ward.

I love learning English and have been persistent in my studies and went to the United States for the NCLEX-RN exam. Because of my English skills, I had the opportunity to work as a medical volunteer for the F1 Grand Prix on behalf of our hospital in the second year of my career, was promoted to the position of a clinical coach ahead of my peers, and was recommended to take training courses for candidate Party members. All of this was great but I was passionate about pursuing English proficiency and a broader horizon and higher value for my career development. In 2008, I decided to leave the public hospital system to explore other possibilities.

United Family Healthcare (UFH) was the first place I thought about and I had actually been longing for a position there for quite some time. However, I was not confident when I submitted my application as I had no overseas working experience and felt my my English wasn’t good enough for the position. I just wanted to give it a go anyway. Fortunately, I got an offer thanks to my solid nursing expertise and good communication skills. I was excited to join United Family Healthcare in Shanghai.

At the beginning, I found the job very challenging. I never worked in an English-speaking environment and the workflows were quite different from what I was used to in public hospitals. I was kind of overwhelmed. Most of the time, doctors, patients and nurses were speaking English. As nurses we are required to coordinate various situations and participate in therapeutic discussions. When a Chinese patient comes to see a foreign doctor, the nurse usually has to do all the interpretation. Patients may also go to nurses for some advice before or after seeing their doctors. This requires a nurse to have extensive knowledge and solid communication skills so as to be confident in dealing with patients and give them satisfactory answers.

Doctors tend to have more trust in nurses who are fully capable in all of these skills and prefer to work with them as partners. An organized nurse significantly reduces the burden of a doctor so that the doctor can spend more time communicating with patients. I worked extremely hard to catch up with my colleagues and I thought over every procedure and question to locate my weaknesses and improve my way of doing things. By doing so, I was able to deliver better services for the next patients and avoid similar mistakes. At the same time, UFH offers an excellent learning and training platform for nurses. We can improve our English level, nursing expertise, communication skills, problem-solving ability and innovation ability through face-to-face as well as online training programs. I settled in to the new environment soon and found myself enjoying the work environment and pace very much.

To date, I have been working at UFH for 10 years and have grown from a young nurse to a senior and then onto Head Nurse. I have come this far not only because of my own hard work and support from my team, but also because of the broad, transparent and fair platform for career development that UFH provides for its nurses. There is a promotion exam every year and every hardworking and aspirational nurse can earn their opportunities for promotion. Open positions are open to all employees and everyone can apply based on their abilities and interests.

After becoming Head Nurse, my work focus has changed. Apart from delivering high-quality clinical nursing services and keeping my patients well cared for and satisfied, I also participate in the development and management of our department and the entire hospital, keep track of the growth and development of all nurses on my team, ensure that they are satisfied with their jobs and that they would like to stay on the team, and coordinate with other departments for all kinds of matters. More responsibilities mean more challenges, but they just make me love my job and UFH more. I enjoy every joyful and fulfilling moment at work.

Liang Wang Associate Manager, Nursing Training
Beijing United Family Hospital

As a Associate Manager, Nursing Training, I’m the youngest staff member with the least seniority. After graduating in 2012, I came to Beijing United Family Hospital to participate in a one-year nursing trainee program.

Learning Can Be Autonomous and Pleasant

In the first half of the year, our training is formed by the combination of clinical practice and lectures, with a greater focus on clinical practices in the second half of the year. The combination of theory and practice is suitable for a young graduate to complete the transition from student to nurse. Each month we have a detailed curriculum schedule and arrangements for theoretical courses and department rotations. Sharing the problems encountered in the classroom after clinical learning inspires us to learn more actively and autonomously. My key takeaway from the learning process was that knowledge needs to be constantly updated. This is what sets UFH apart. It places greater focus on the training of new graduates, which is more conducive for us to acquire knowledge.

Through the inter-department rotation, we not only realize the transition from knowledge to practice, but also get to know many teachers in various departments, which makes later work and communication with them extremely smooth and cordial. The arrangement of the departments is also very fair. Each of us can apply for three departments and the Head Nurse of each department will make decision among us. As long as our intentions are consistent with the Head Nurse's, a decision can be made. If a nurse is chosen by many departments, then the nurse can decide which one he/she prefers to work in. This is another aspect that makes UFH special. As the youngest nurse, I feel very comfortable working at UFH and being fairly treated by management and supervisors.

Every Day Presents New Challenges and Growth Potentials

After finishing the training program, we passed the exam and became first-level nurses. The promotion mode of UFH is very interesting. Through passing written and practical tests, you can be promoted from Level 1 to Level 4. As long as you’re capable of passing the exam, you’ll be promoted and your remuneration will naturally improve. After one year of training, we became first-level nurses from trainees and went to our corresponding departments according to our wishes. It took another year to pass the promotion exam and become a second-level nurse. This year, the fourth year, I’ll have the opportunity to pass an exam and be promoted to a third-level nurse.

I used to think that nurses repeat the same routine every day and would probably even be able to guess correctly, upon graduation, what it would be like when they retire. However, when I came here, I found that the working lives of nurses can be very different. We still have nursing training, such as learning venipuncture in local hospitals and the latest first-aid training.

Additionally, there are many other learning opportunities at UFH. For example, in 2016, the hospital planned to shoot a number of clinical operation videos to use as teaching standards on the internal online university. I was honored to be a member of this team. We did everything from shooting and demonstrations to editing, so I was able to learn these skills. I also became more familiar with these norms during the shoot. There are many other such opportunities including being a guide in BLS, ACLS and various nursing specializations, going to communities and schools to give lectures, and much more. All of this makes the life of a nurse more interesting.

The nursing model at UFH is relatively close to foreign models. The company culture and diversified nursing gives us new experiences every day.

Finally, I’d like to share my favorite quote with all my teachers: ‘I choose what I like and I like what I choose. I hope each of us will have a bright future’.

Dr.Zhu Gang Associate Medical Director, Chief Surgeon, Chair of Urology, Professor, and Chair of Surgery
Beijing Untied Family Hospital

After studying abroad in the UK in 2004, I gained the chance to be a part-time doctor at UFH, which gave me an opportunity to learn more about it. UFH is a hospital which provides patients with high quality medical services by virtue of its modern medical concepts, medical knowledge and devices, and professional and reliable doctors. Its development over the past two decades demonstrates its broad prospects for future development; its medical service concepts are also my own ideal medical service concepts. In 2015, I joined the hospital as a full-time doctor based on the will of both parties after meeting its engagement standards of the hospital. With the same medical service concepts that I follow, UFH gave me a platform on which to make progress.

Putting Responsibility First, Continuing to Learn and Making Progress

As doctors, we should put both patient safety and medical quality first, and endeavor to improve our medical knowledge and skills so as to guarantee high quality medical services. Regardless of the location, the career of a doctor requires constant learning which is ‘as natural as life’, and the promotion of one’s ability through learning. At UFH, the doctors have a regular study time each week through a sharing approach, enabling them to learn by communicating with each other. The conducting of clinical research and publication of medical papers are also supported.

The hospital provides our doctors with a sound medical environment and such advanced medical devices as the Da Vinci Robotic Surgical System, and encourages its medical staff to make innovations to their medical services from the policy level. In such an environment, our doctors keep making progress and finding new surgical indications on the premise of ensuring medical safety, thereby broadening our service scope and enhancing our influence in the medical community.

Meanwhile, the provision of modern medical services requires our doctors to be sympathetic, focus on the patients and their families, understand and pay attention to their feelings, and provide them with comprehensive assistance. We should continue to learn from hospitals in Europe and America in order to improve our overall service quality and patient satisfaction levels.

We’re fully aware that the growth of doctors will not be achieved in one step. Guided by the senior doctors, our young doctors learn clinical experience and modern medical service concepts, and make progress step by step.

Continuing Efforts to Develop UFH into a World-Leading Medical Institution

Many world-leading medical institutions such as the Cleveland Clinic and Johns Hopkins Hospital developed out of small clinics. Our hospital should follow these brilliant hospitals as models and examples and learn from these hospitals and strive for innovation. We will endeavor to develop our hospital into a leading medical institution at home and abroad.

What UFH needs are brilliant talents who are capable of meeting challenges with the spirit of innovation. At the same time, we’re willing to understand and apply modern medical services so as to serve our patients. A hospital is not a place for enjoying a comfortable life; it requires its entire medical staff to meet the challenges brought by the new environment, work tirelessly and release their full potential in order to provide its patients with the best medical services.

Liu Xiaolong Associate General Manager
Guangzhou United Family Hospital

As a dedicated patient-centered healthcare services provider, UFH has endeavored to realize its concept of ‘sustainable and comprehensive services’ in patient services and daily work, making it the company of innovation and humanistic care that I yearned for. Therefore, at the beginning of 2012, I joined UFH in Tianjin which had just been established.

Practicing What I Preach – The ‘Belt and Road’ Spirit of UFH

After returning home, I had a brief experience of working for a state-owned company. Compared with that company, the work environment in UFH is freer and more equal, and UFH pays greater attention to the intentions of the staff members themselves. The line leaders are familiar with the lives and work of the team members, and they show solicitude towards them in various aspects. For example, the general manager at that time didn’t look down upon me for living overseas and coming back, but trusted me and trained me conscientiously, providing opportunities for me to show my talents in various ways. I remember that I was the only assistant staff member to participate in a significant meeting, which was solely due to my statement that I wanted to learn more about the company’s operations. When he understood that I was a little shy, he provided me with a chance to lead the team, thus cultivating my leadership skills. Such examples are common in every department. If the staff only has certain abilities with a desire to advance, the leaders of every department will guide them in their development. I call this the ‘Belt and Road’ spirit of UFH. The leaders make specific development plans for individuals so as to help every UFH team member realize their best selves.

Spokesman of UFH and Standard-maker of the Industry

As the core of a hospital is to provide services, we play the roles of supporter and spokesperson. In the aspect of maintaining the hospital’s development, every department is equal and there are no ‘key departments’. Based on a clear enterprise framework, each team member should do their work well within the scope of their functions. For example, when the medical director and nursing director consider designing a correspondent treatment plan for patients, they only need to consider whether it will be of great benefit to the patient’s health rather than considering the costs. In my view, this is the greatest representation of the high quality services of UFH when we each do our own work well.

At UFH, aside from the environment of ‘equality’ and ‘fairness’, the innovative and democratic operation mechanism is the platform on which UFH people strive for excellence.

On the one hand, we endeavor to optimize the service links of patients seeking medical care by creating a comfortable and worriless experience for them. On the other, we improve data integration from medical technology to the integrated query of patient information, thereby becoming a pioneer in the high-level medical industry.

If you’re persistent and confident, and you hope to get somewhere in your profession, we’re waiting for you at UFH.

Yijun Fang

Yijun Fang

Pharmacy Manager

林立伟

Catherine Gao

Head Nurse

Liang Wang

Liang Wang

Associate Manager, Nursing Training

Dr.Zhu Gang

Dr.Zhu Gang

Associate Medical Director

Liu Xiaolong

Liu Xiaolong

Associate General Manager