On February 26, 2026, the School of Nursing, Fudan University and the School of Nursing and Midwifery, University College Cork (UCC) jointly held an online international research seminar. University College Cork is a top public research university in Ireland, founded in 1845. As a comprehensive research-intensive institution, it has been named “Irish University of the Year” on multiple occasions. Its nursing discipline was ranked 27th worldwide in the 2025 QS World University Rankings by Subject.

The event was co-chaired by Dr. Vera Mc Carthy, Vice Dean of Graduate Studies at the School of Nursing and Midwifery, UCC, and Professor Hu Yan, Dean of the School of Nursing, Fudan University. Six doctoral candidates from both universities presented their research, and faculty and students engaged in in-depth discussions on cutting-edge research directions, methodologies, and clinical translation in nursing.

During the seminar, doctoral candidates from both institutions presented on key topics in nursing. From UCC, Caroline Egan focused on decision-making transitions to residential care for people with intellectual disabilities and their family carers in Ireland; using qualitative research and literature review, she identified gaps in policy and service support and innovatively applied multi-perspective interpretative phenomenological analysis. Louise Murphy integrated clinical practice with her part-time doctoral research to address gaps and improvements in cardiovascular risk assessment for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, demonstrating strong integration between nursing research and clinical practice. Niamh Ryan used an international cohort study to examine the relationship between maternal psychological distress and the human milk metabolome, showcasing interdisciplinary research value.

From Fudan University, Xiao Runxi combined narrative medicine with PROMIS to develop a story-based scoring guideline and explored its integration with artificial intelligence. Ren Ruolin conducted a multi-center study to clarify the current status and influencing factors of developmentally supportive care in Chinese NICUs and proposed a three-dimensional improvement strategy. Zhang Yu addressed communication avoidance among spouses of head and neck cancer patients with dysphagia during radiotherapy, developing a dual-care intervention integrating functional rehabilitation and psychosocial adaptation. These presentations advanced knowledge in care decision-making, clinical translation, maternal and child health, assessment tools, neonatal nursing, and oncological psychosocial support, providing diverse insights and empirical evidence for nursing innovation and practice in China and Ireland.

In the open Q&A and discussion session, faculty and students actively exchanged views on research methodology optimization, clinical translation of findings, and differences and collaborative opportunities between Chinese and Irish nursing practices. Experts from both sides noted that the two nursing schools share similar research interests. The research presented at the seminar was both theoretically innovative and clinically applicable, providing a valuable opportunity for nursing researchers from both countries to exchange and learn from each other. Dr. Vera Mc Carthy introduced UCC’ s Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) research model, while Professor Yuan Changrong, Professor Hu Xiaojing, and other Fudan experts shared experiences in patient engagement and clinical guideline development in Chinese nursing research, inspiring future collaborative projects.

The successful seminar strengthened academic and research exchanges between the two schools. Building on this event, both institutions aim to further enhance collaboration in joint nursing research projects, visiting scholar exchanges for young researchers, and joint doctoral education. Together, they will continue to explore cutting-edge scientific issues in nursing and promote the mutual development of both nursing disciplines.