The Hospital Authority in Hong Kong proposed that the nursing system is to be re-structured, with registered nurses at the first tier, and advanced practice nurses with expanded role and clinical expertise in the second tier. It is inevitable that the nursing in Hong Kong is to evolve to advanced practice to meet the societal needs and challenges. Articles published in this issue demonstrate that this new direction of expanded nursing role is well underway.
Wong in her article "Hong Kong accident and emergency nurses' perceived competency in advanced practice and barriers to continuing education" realizes not only the competencies that nurses working in Accident and Emergency unit need to possess but also their urgent need for continuing education. In her article, she identified some of the perceived barriers to continuing education and make recommendations to minimize these barriers.
"A systematic review on psychosocial factors associated with successful breast-feeding" is an article by Lau highlighting the importance to focus not only on physical care but also consider psychological and social factors. The paper calls for evidence-based practice and the nurses' role in health education and supportive care.
"Nurse as a therapist in the Group Treatment Programme for parents of children with behaviour problems" making obvious that psychiatric nursing activities have extended to develop, facilitate and conduct therapeutic programs for parents. This paper confirmed the provision of advanced nursing practice in psycho-therapeutic intervention.
The paper by Ho calls for nurses' reflection of their daily clinical practice, and invites nurses to be sensitive to clients' feelings while providing care.
A discussion paper on "Euthanasia" by Chan, Ko and Lo point out the misunderstandings of 'euthanasia' that many nurses have. She requests the readers to reconsider the meanings of 'euthanasia', and respect the dignity and human rights of clients. She suggested 'death education' to alleviate the worries and concerns of the clients and their relatives.
The researcher and the authors of these articles are heading in this rightly direction of advanced nursing practice development and to tackle the challenges that the profession is facing.
Issue Editors