Award-winning, innovative medical worker hopes to serve until age 110

Zhang Jinyuan graduated from a nursing college in Nanchang, Jiangxi province, and started practicing nursing at a local hospital around the same time the People's Republic of China was founded in 1949.

More than seven decades later, Zhang, 94, still volunteers to visit and care for the elderly and has no plans of stopping anytime soon.

"I want to keep working hard in my 100th year, and being able to work through to the age of 110 would be a dream come true for me," she said at a ceremony held by the Chinese Nursing Association in Beijing on Wednesday.

The ceremony was held to honor Zhang, who received the 2023 International Achievement Award from the International Council of Nurses and the Florence Nightingale International Foundation earlier this month.

The award is offered biennially to a practicing nurse with at least 10 years of nursing experience in direct care, education, management or research and who has made a significant impact internationally.

Zhang is the first Chinese nurse to win the prestigious global award.

"Zhang Jinyuan, the founder and honorary chairman of Chinese Nightingale Volunteer Service Work, has been presented with this award for her work in establishing a four-in-one model of community, hospital, family and volunteer and a chain service model of home-based care for the elderly," said Annette Kennedy, former president of the International Council of Nurses, in the announcement of the award in Montreal, Canada, on July 2.

Kennedy added that the nonagenarian was also being honored for establishing a smart elderly care service platform to deliver accurate and efficient voluntary service, connecting people with needs with volunteer service projects and improving the efficiency of such services.

Zhang began working as a nurse at a hospital in Nanchang in 1951.

"Some people might see nursing as a monotonous profession that requires few techniques, but I do not think so," she said.

During her 45 years as a practicing clinical nurse, Zhang was committed to exploring and developing innovative nursing care tools and techniques, including changing bedsheets in a way that prevents raising dust, using a strap to help move heavy patients and creating a prototype device for sending alerts when intravenous infusions malfunction.

Zhang officially retired in 1993 but was looking for opportunities to continue playing a role in nursing care.

During a visit to a patient's home, Zhang found that the elderly person, whose blood pressure reading was unstable, often forgot to take medicines and monitor their blood pressure regularly.

"Many families lack basic knowledge of medical care, and it is a weakness that must be addressed," she said.

A mission began forming in her mind — to bring nursing care services beyond medical clinics into communities and families. Initially, 16 other retired nurses participated in the drive.

"At first, we were met with sneering and mistrust from local residents. Some even mistook us for swindlers," Zhang said.

But by successfully helping and caring for a bedridden patient who had just been discharged from a hospital, she said the group began winning recognition from the public.

In October 2009, Zhang set up a home-based elderly care volunteer group to improve the range and quality of services.

The size of the group she led kept growing and now consists of nearly 20,000 volunteers. They have offered services for more than 700,000 people in 350 neighborhoods.