Chinese nurses' education level rises

Fifty-six percent of China's nurses at the end of 2012 were graduates from junior colleges, with this figure 24.4 percentage points higher than in 2005, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission. Furthermore, 10.6 percent of all the nurses held a degree at bachelor level or above at this point in time, the commission said in a statement Friday. The statement also pointed to nurses' working conditions and remunerations having improved in recent years. Among 5,809 nurses working in 112 hospitals across China, 84.2 percent are generally happy in their work, according to a third-party survey commissioned by the health authority. China's number of registered nurses stood at nearly 2.5 million at the end of 2012 amid the country's continuous efforts to build up its nursing population.