On the afternoon of February 19, the third batch of medical teams of the Shanghai First People’s Hospital was sent to Hubei. This medical team, among the eight Shanghai Municipality sent, arrived at Wuhan to assist their colleagues. Zhang Min, head nurse of the 2A Intensive Care unit, is also an alumnus from the class 24 from our Nankai-Flinders MHA program and was one of the medical staff sent to fight the epidemic.

Four years ago, when her daughter was only five months old, Zhang went to the United States to study Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). After their studies, she returned to China and established the ECMO nursing team. Like four years ago, she had no choice but to “leave” again her four years old daughter and join the “battlefield”. “I am the head nurse of the intensive care unit and also an ECMO technician. I am duty-bound”, she said.

With more than ten years of ICU work and vast management experience, she applied the knowledge she acquired working at the Shanghai First People’s Hospital. Zhang was in charge of manage all the equipment, instruments and medicines at the Raytheon Mountain Hospital in Wuhan. Her job was to rationalize the stock and enhance the operation level. All her efforts helped to increase the available space in the ward and improve the work efficiency of the nursing staff.

The nursing work at the ICU in the Raytheon Mountain Hospital includes prone treatment for its patients. Zhang adapted to the new environment and found a set of energy-saving and safe prone ventilation methods. She led the staff in the department to safely perform prone ventilation treatment on patients.

As a nurse specialized in ECMO, Zhang worked with the medical team of the Renji Hospital. Working with people she barely knew could be a problem, but Zhang was strong enough to lead her new colleagues. Take care of patients who are undergoing ECMO treatment is a very delicate matter, but she showed her ability to learn and overcome the difficulties.