Prof. Hua-Shan Wu, a chairperson of the Department of Nursing at Asia University (AU), and Prof. Hui-Wen Chien together planned an “Australia Long-Term Care Internship Program,” and the project was supported by grants from the Ministry of Education of Taiwan. Therefore, a total of nine AU junior students from the Department of Nursing, Fang-Min Xu, Xuan-Xuan Lin, and Yi-Ru Chen, etc., went to the University of Wollongong (UOW), and two modern aged care homes called Bupa North Rock and Bupa Dural. In this summer program, the students learned about many aspects of Australia’s long-term health plan and operation mode, including wound care, handling and shifting techniques; and pain care, fall prevention, and unconstrained policies. Therefore, the program not only expanded the students’ international perspectives, but also improved their communication skills.

“Two years ago, the Department of Nursing at AU had an academic collaboration with the UOW, including an international nursing program, and dual bachelor and master degree programs,” said Prof. Hua-Shan Wu. She also mentioned that the UOW had a high reputation both in Australia and international countries. The UOW was ranked the top 1 best in Australia by quality indicators for learning and teaching (QILT) among all Australian higher education institutions. Moreover, it was ranked the 212th in the 2019 QS World University Rankings, and ranked the 17th in the 2017/2018 QS ‘top 50 under 50’ ranking. Through the summer internship program, the collaboration and classroom discussion with the School of Nursing at the UOW could enhance the AU students’ cross-cultural care expertise and competitiveness, and this will greatly help their career development planning.

During the term of the internship program of the Australian long-term care institutions, the nine AU students were guided by local senior nurses, and then arranged to learn professional affairs with different local teams according to the characteristic of the institution.

For example, one of the teams taught students how to use a nursing professional skill, and another team taught them how to implement non-pharmacological therapy to treat pains. So the students can learn Australia's holistic health care models as well as diverse ethnic background. Xuan-Xuan Lin, a student of the Department of Nursing at AU, said that the Australian health care value that she experienced is to enable the elderly to live in a quality and respect of life, and to provide their right of choices and activities.

It was worth mentioning that the nine AU students were assigned to study the nursing leadership, the long-term care or other related courses with the local and international students at the UOW. They shared with each other the differences of medical environments and systems in their countries through a class discussion between the teachers and students.

Yi-Ru Chen, a student of the Department of Nursing at AU, pointed out that there were many class discussions among the students in the classroom of the UOW, and more interactions between the teachers and students which are different from the traditional classroom activity. Fang-Min Xu, an AU student, mentioned that during her internship in Australia, she not only learned professional knowledge, but also realized the differences between different cultures, and that the internships are truly worth participating. “Thanks to Asia University for planning and arranging the summer program,” said Xu.