The International Red Cross recently posted its list of recipients of the 2015 Nightingale Medal on their website. 36 nurses from 18 countries worldwide were awarded with the distinguished honor, with 5 nurses from China included in the list, making it the country with the highest number of winners. Ms. Du Liqun, a remarkable Guangxi RTVU alumna was honored to be placed on the list. 

Ms. Du Liqun enrolled in the undergraduate programme in Administration Management for fall, 2012 at Nanning RTVU in Guangxi province. She had been working as the head nurse of the AIDS Department in the 4th People’s Hospital in Nanning, Guangxi Province. As a front line nurse as well as a devoted communist, Ms. Du has worked in the nursing profession for over thirty years and she is amiably called by her AIDS patients as “a big sister next door” because of her whole-hearted contributions to them and her persistence in working on the front line of AIDS patient nursing for more than twelve years. While working in the AIDS Department, she has diligently studied the neck venous puncture technique on her own and summarized her experience in starting from scratch and learning how to take care of AIDS patients, which has helped to relieve pain in hundreds of critical patients and led her to become one of the major contributors and authors of the Regulations for Professional and Standard Nursing for Cancer and AIDS. Furthermore, Ms. Du has also engaged diligently in promoting programmes to combat AIDS by holding lectures, volunteering for free medical consultations, participating in media interviews, etc. She has traveled to every remote corner of Guangxi province and her efforts have benefited more than 100,000 people. 

Despite her heavy work load, Ms. Du hasn't given up on the opportunity to improve her educational level, and continues to study at RTVU in her spare time. Thanks to her contributions at work and her pursuits of improvement, Ms. Du has received dozens of honors, such as the titles of “National Advanced Worker”, “Guangxi Citizen Role Model”, “National Role Model of Medical Ethics”, “National Labor Day Medal”, etc. Moreover, Ms. Du is the first winner of the “Bethune Medal” in Guangxi province. In the year 2013, the Communist Committee of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region even initiated an activity of learning from Ms. Du Liqun's outstanding achievements. 

The Nightingale Medal is the highest international award in the nursing profession and is granted by the International Red Cross biennially. 

                                                                                                 By Li Rong, Guangxi RTVU