Niresh Thapa (Chinese name: 尼瑞斯, Nationality: Nepalese) studied at the Second Clinical School of Wuhan University as a PhD student from September 2015 to July 2019. After graduation, he has been serving the remote place of Nepal.
My First Encounter with Wuhan University
My name is Niresh Thapa from Nepal. My journey of studying in Wuhan University began in 2000. I had one year of Chinese language class before my medical study. There was huge diversity in culture and language, and we were from different parts of the globe. We were not only learning the mandarin, but also the diverse culture of friends from various countries. With numerous opportunities to know the international history and civilization of different cultural backgrounds, it was really interesting and meaningful life I spent during first year of Wuhan University. As a medical student I had some level of challenge to have good communication skills in order to apply my Chinese language in clinical practice. Because of the well qualified dedicated and helpful teachers and interactive friendly classmates, we had a very fruitful language year.
Bachelor in Clinical Medicine(2001-2006)
I felt extremely grateful that I had really awesome friends from both China and other countries. We used to have busy schedules in our medical school with countless lectures and laboratory works. Similar with international standard curriculum, MBBS course was never easy. It started with basic sciences, then basic medical classes to clinical courses and internship at the final year. Internship in Zhongnan Hospital was amazing with so many enthusiastic professors and clinicians. I got golden opportunities to learn essential clinical skills, which is still useful in my medical practice. After graduation in 2006, I returned back to Nepal and served in different level of government hospitals.
I completed my post graduate (MD) in Nepal from 2009 to 2012. I have been serving in rural secondary level hospitals to tertiary care center since then. During this period of clinical practice, I realized that reproductive health of women living in remote area of Nepal is poor, especially women’s cancer care still remains a major problem. So I had decided to have further training in gynecological oncology.
Journey of PhD in Gynecological Oncology
In 2015, I was selected for PhD in Gynecological Oncology program by Wuhan University and it was fully supported by China Scholarship Council. I applied this program because I know Gynecological Oncology program is one of the strongest departments in Second Clinical College of Wuhan University (Zhongnan Hospital), which was led by Professor Dr. Cai Hong Bing. I did my PhD under the guidance of Professor Cai.
As we know Cervical Cancer is preventable but unfortunately in many low and middle income countries like Nepal, it is one of the most common cancers among women. So I focused my PhD work on cervical cancer prevention. Professor Cai strongly supported and properly guided me on that research direction. As a result, we were successfully able to publish articles in many SCI indexed journals. I am deeply thankful to Professor Cai, faculty members and my colleagues of the department of Gynecological Oncology, Zhongnan Hospital. It gave me the opportunity to get involved in academic activities like multi-disciplinary team (MDT) meeting, seminar, national and international conferences etc. and in clinical work to perform various cancer surgeries. Due to excellent working environment and strong motivation of the professors and other teachers, I was the winner of Excellent International Student Award in 2018 by CSC. I completed my PhD in 2019 with excellent result.
Life in Wuhan and China
Wuhan is my second home. I was in Wuhan altogether for 10 years. I was young when I first landed in China in 2000 and I spent most beautiful period of my life in Wuhan. It always makes me nostalgic of that time.
Apart from our curricular work, we had tremendous experience of extra-curricular activities. Every year we had spectacular cultural week in Wuhan University, which became so popular later and spread to other places and universities. I had great life with my friends to play football and volleyball in University playground. Cherry blossoms in Wuhan University are etched on my mind. Beautiful gardens, fantastic architecture, cherry blossoms, spectacular view of east lake and the hospitality inspired by the Confucius philosophy made Wuhan University one of the most beautiful universities in the world. East lake is more beautiful than before with lush green trees all around. As soon as we had leisure time I used to go cycling, swimming and even go picnic around the east lake with my family and friends.
When I talk about the hospitality, I miss Professor Chen, the professor who also guided me. He had a habit to have get-together every week with students of gynecological oncology, and all students were invited to join that dinner every week with delicious food cooked by himself. He was 84 at that time, he is a legendary surgeon who used to come to operation room to guide the other faculty members. I am inspired with his surgical skills, hospitality and cooking skills as well.
Life In Nepal
After PhD graduation, I have been serving the remote place of Nepal, the same organization that I used to work called Karnali Academy of Health Sciences, Jumla.
It’s a government body and at the same time autonomous deem university. We have 9 clinical, nursing and public health programs including MBBS, MD/MS. I have been working as a Rector since last 3 years with main responsibility to look after these academic activities. The knowledge and experience I gained in Wuhan University is a great asset for me to apply in my present institution. I feel proud to say that I am the alumni of Wuhan University.
