Chinese, PNG medical staff share homemade cuisines to celebrate Int'l Nurse Day

Chinese medical team member Yang Chang gives an embroidered fan as a gift to a Papua New Guinean medical worker on the occasion of International Nurse Day at the Port Moresby General Hospital in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, May 12, 2023. (The 12th Chinese medical team stationed in Papua New Guinea/Handout via Xinhua)

SYDNEY, May 12 (Xinhua) -- As Friday marked International Nurse Day, the 12th Chinese medical team stationed in Papua New Guinea (PNG) celebrated the special occasion with their counterparts in Port Moresby, sharing homemade cuisines and surprising PNG medical crews with handicraft gifts.

On Friday morning, team member Yang Chang and her medical teammates decorated a room inside the Port Moresby General Hospital with hand-painted placards and plates of desserts and traditional Chinese dishes.

To prepare for the Nurse Day celebrations, Chinese medical staff baked cakes and cookies, and made steamed buns, which gained popularity among PNG medics.

As a nurse with 13 years of experience, Yang also brought along a box of hand-made accessories as presents to commemorate her first International Nurse Day spent overseas.

Earrings, dried flower keychains, and braided bracelets were all crafted by the handy Chinese and won the hearts of many PNG nurses at once.

"I am very happy to spend this special day with PNG nurses. I feel proud of our profession because we are always by the side of our patients and guarding their health," Yang said.

Barbra Sobi, head nurse of the operating room, expressed her best wishes to nurse practitioners as well, adding that it is a great pleasure to work together with the Chinese medical team.

An International Nurse Day program was also held by the hospital on the same day, with the theme of "Our Nurses, Our Future." The event included a candle-lighting ceremony, nurses' pledge reciting, experience sharing, and other activities.