Recently, ZENG Fei (left), head nurse of SAHZU critical care units, was awarded the prize of “Outstanding Nurse” by Zhejiang Nursing Association. ZENG started to work at SAHZU since 1997 and has grown to be an excellent nursing expert in the care of critically ill patients.

The intensive care unit is the border between life and death. Patients could be babies of only few months old, or senior adults as old as the century. Throughout her career, ZENG (second from right) devoted herself to providing love and care to these patients, because it is her hope that, despite the cold machine constantly beeping in the intensive care units, there is also warmth in their profession.

ZENG set standards of critical care in the hospital with her abundant clinical experience to improve nursing quality. For example, she created a standardized nursing care system for adult and pediatric lung transplant patients and pediatric patients of living donor liver transplant. Through assisting major public health emergencies, such as SARS, bus arson accidents and Covid-19 pandemic, she is always able to translate these valuable clinical practices into quality improvement methods.

ZENG herself is also highly qualified in a variety of advanced critical care skills, including the management of prone ventilation for ECMO patients, care for early mobilization of ECMO patients, nursing care of pulmonary rehabilitation for critically ill patients, rehabilitation management of lung transplant patients, etc. It is in her unit that SAHZU critical care team managed to sustain the life of a patient waiting for lung transplant on ECMO support for 46 days, the longest in China so far  .

In the meantime, ZENG made a great deal of efforts to control nosocomial infection. For critically burnt patients particularly, she emphasized on the prevention and control of infection in the management of ECMO catheters and central venous catheters.

However, Ms. ZENG Fei never considers her achievements to be hers only, but the outcome of collective efforts. According to her, to have an outstanding team is much more important than to be an outstanding individual. With SAHZU to back her up, ZENG is confident to continue her work of caring critically ill patients, to solve clinical problems and to educate the next generations of nurses.