May 2025 Entry
The mission of research in the School of Nursing is to advance evidence-based nursing practice for an optimal health and well-being of all people locally, nationally and internationally. The School provides a nurturing and supportive environment for scientific knowledge inquiry and provides a platform and infrastructure for intellectual exchanges and opportunities and challenges for researchers in Hong Kong, Mainland China and overseas.
The strengths of research in the School of Nursing lie in the diversity of our output and the innovations and talents of our faculty. We have been conducting high quality clinical and applied research in nursing and other health sciences. The high quality, applied research has contributed to various positive impacts on nursing sciences and knowledge for education and social policies. The School supports different new research initiatives and development, invests strategically and continuously in prioritized areas of research in order to develop the critical mass and excellence of research based on the School’s internationally recognized strengths and expertise.
Healthy Ageing through Innovations
The Healthy Ageing through Innovations team endeavors to advance the field of gerontology by promoting optimal health and wellbeing for the ageing population and their dedicated caregivers. Through multidisciplinary research collaborations, our team concentrates on identifying innovative strategies and state-of-the-art gerontechnologies to address a broad spectrum of health challenges frequently encountered by older adults, including dementia, mild cognitive impairment, frailty, sarcopenia, and psychological health concerns. Our mission is to identify vulnerable populations and deliver tailored care that empowers older individuals to take a proactive approach to manage their health and wellbeing. With diverse expertise, we utilize cutting-edge technologies to develop evidence-based solutions that enhance health outcomes and elevate the quality of life for the ageing community.
Please click here to find out more about the research interests of our School of Nursing.
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support
Mental health problems are one of the most common causes of disabilities worldwide. They are estimated to be one of the top ten causes of mortality/morbidity within this decade. Promotion of mental health and provision of timely interventions and support for people with mental health challenges and their families are important areas to be developed locally, regionally, and globally.
Members of this Area of Excellence are committed to building the capacity and developing a strong research profile in the field of mental health and psychosocial support. The team has a focused research strategy that are closely linked to local, regional, and international mental health care needs, services, and education. The mission of this team is to produce innovative and world-leading research in mental health and psychosocial support for local, regional, and international communities.
The goals are:
To identify most current mental health needs in both clinical and community settings
To establish evidence-based interventions and supportive strategies for people experiencing mental health challenges
To promote mental health of people in various developmental life stages across different care settings
To engage communities to promote positive mental well-being and reduce stigma surrounding mental health problems
Please click here to find out more about the research interests of our School of Nursing.
Palliative Care in Cancer Trajectory and Survivorship
The research team strives for promoting the well-beings of cancer patients, including children and adults, their family members and healthcare professionals throughout the disease trajectory and survivorship in both hospital and community settings. The research priorities are on three areas:
Symptom management in cancer,
Complementary and alternative medicine,
Using biomarkers to elucidate the disease and intervention mechanisms, and evaluate the intervention effectiveness.
Please click here to find out more about the research interests of our School of Nursing.
Primary Health Care
The Primary Health Care (PHC) area of excellence aims at producing impactful researches in the field of primary healthcare through the use of interdisciplinary approaches and cutting-edge technologies. The PHC members focus on identifying vulnerable, high-risk populations and those with potential and early signs of illness, promoting patient empowerment and self-management to maintain optimal health for chronic conditions, and encouraging healthy lifestyle (such as vaccination, exercise, and smoking cessation). With a diverse range of backgrounds, including nursing, public health, engineering, and collaborators from varied disciplines, the PHC members bring a unique perspective to managing health problems, utilizing AI and other advanced technologies to improve health and healthcare for people in the community setting.
Please click here to find out more about the research interests of our School of Nursing.
Centre for Smart Health
The Centre for Smart Health aims to create healthcare innovations with technology, making positive impacts on practice and the quality of care. We conduct cross-disciplinary applied research that capitalises on our expertise in technology, including virtual reality and artificial intelligence, and translates the results into practice to improve healthcare education, diagnosis and treatment.
Squina International Centre for Infection Control
The Squina International Centre for Infection Control (CIC) is a specialist centre hosted by the School of Nursing, tasked to lead by promoting excellence in the practice of infection prevention and control. It is a multidisciplinary, technological, educational and consultative centre, which benefits from the input of a range of departments within the University.
The newly renovated centre’s facilities and infrastructure enable students, staff and researchers to:
- Conduct research to enhance prevention and control of infection
- Promote healthy behaviours, foster safe and healthy environments
- Provide leadership and training for infectious disease prevention and control
WHO Collaborating Centre for Community Health Services (WHO CC)
The World Health Organization (WHO) has designated the School of Nursing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University as a WHO Collaborating Centre for Community Health Services since December 2007. Through implementing the WHO's mandate, the School has been playing a proactive role in strengthening evidence-based community health services and improving the health outcomes of local, regional and global populations. The World Health Organization has redesignated our School’s WHO Collaborating Centre (WHO CC) for Community Health Services. It was agreed with WHO that we would change the focus of our WHO CC to align with one of the WHO current strategic priorities: healthy ageing. The following are the key foci of our activities:
- Understand key indicators of ageing and health in the countries in Western Pacific Region.
- Promote WHO Guidelines on Integrated Care for Older People (ICOPE) and develop initiatives to disseminate and implement it in Western Pacific Region countries.
- Consolidate good practices and policies that ensure healthy lives and promote well-being of older people in the Western Pacific Region.
Interdisciplinary Centre for Qualitative Research
The Interdisciplinary Centre for Qualitative Research (ICQR) of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University is the first dedicated interdisciplinary qualitative research centre in Asia. Established in 2021, the ICQR aims to generate and transfer knowledge through qualitative research into the clinical and business setting. We also believe qualitative research methods are proving increasingly beneficial in exploring and answering those questions that cannot be easily answered by quantitative approaches alone. Indeed, the role of qualitative research allows for a more thorough exploration in examining individual experiences in all their complexity and in the contexts where these experiences take place which can be particularly conductive to policy design and improvement.
Centre for Evidence-based Practice for Health Care Policy: A Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Affiliated Group
The Centre for Evidence-based Practice for Health Care Policy: A JBI Affiliated Group is hosted by the School of Nursing at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, a world leader in gerontological, mental health, cancer and palliative care and community health services research. We believe the addition of the JBI group based at PolyU will be integral in developing new research questions to address some of the key health priorities affecting Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area’s population. We also see our JBI group being prominent leaders in developing and advancing cost-effective and improved evidenced based practice. Our focus is not only on knowledge generation and translation but also through systematic review and evidence implementation education.
Applications with insufficient supporting documents will not be processed.
Suitable applicants may be invited to attend an interview.
For enquiries about the programmes, please email the School of Nursing at sn.enquiry@polyu.edu.hk.
Compulsory - Two Academic Referee's Reports are required.
Optional (strongly advised to submit)
Compulsory - A standard form should be used for submission of research proposal. Please click here to download the form.
Compulsory
Certificate(s) of the award of Bachelor's/ Master's degree
Transcripts of studies
