Nearly a third of registered nurses in Hong Kong hold postgraduate degrees in nursing, a rate comparable to that of the United States and Britain. These qualifications allow nurses to expand their knowledge and can lead them to specialist areas of health care. The degrees also allow nurses to practise in areas such as teaching, research and leadership.
'Advanced practice nursing is the most popular specialisation,' said Agnes Tiwari, associate professor and assistant dean at University of Hong Kong's (HKU) department of nursing. 'This is a good sign because nurses are putting more emphasis on enhancing their professional practice.'
Diana Lee, chair professor of nursing and director of the Nethersole school of nursing at Chinese University (CUHK), said there was a trend among nurses to undertake postgraduate studies in their profession.
The university offers master's and doctorate-level degree programmes. The school's two-year, part-time master of nursing degree allows students to specialise in a choice of five areas - gerontology, critical care, cardiac, oncology and palliative/mental health.
'Nursing is moving towards specialities and this is a way of preparing students for advanced practice roles,' Professor Lee said. As the population ages, gerontology is a speciality that will see the greatest number of nursing shortages. 'By 2030, one out of four people in Hong Kong will be over the age of 65,' she said.
CUHK's master's degree and PhD in nursing also offer traditional research-focused degrees. The master's degree is designed to develop the ability of graduate nurses to investigate an aspect of professional practice through a supervised research project.
