Southern Plus Profiles STU Medical College's Li Ruitao: 14 Years on the Front Line of Critical Care

According to Southern Plus, ahead of the 115th International Nurses Day on May 12, 2026, the Shantou University Medical College and its affiliated hospitals jointly launched the “Guiding Light: The Glow of STU Medicine” series with Southern Plus’s Shantou channel. The opening story focuses on Li Ruitao, head nurse educator of the CCU at STU’s First Affiliated Hospital and an adjunct faculty member of the Medical College.

Fourteen Years at the Bedside

Since starting his career, Li has remained on the front line of critical care nursing, mastering high-difficulty procedures such as ECMO, IABP, CRRT, temporary pacemakers, hemodynamic monitoring, invasive and non-invasive ventilation, and safe transfer of critically ill patients. He has accumulated extensive experience in emergency rescue and multi-organ support nursing, and has been named an “Excellent Nurse” by both the hospital and STU Medical College multiple times.

During the critical phase of pandemic prevention at the end of 2022, he volunteered for the designated COVID-19 treatment hospital. Drawing on solid critical-care skills, he successfully performed Shantou’s first bedside CRRT for a uremic patient co-infected with COVID-19 in an isolation ward; all his patients recovered, with zero nursing complications.

Teaching and Professional Innovation

As head nurse educator and adjunct faculty member, Li conducts clinical skills training for nursing interns, new nurses and specialist nurses, mentoring junior staff hands-on and taking an active role in quality management and process improvement.

Beyond clinical duties, he learns through competition and improves through reform: he won first prize in the Guangdong Chest Pain Center Association’s case-management contest in 2020, second prize in the province’s “comprehensive case station-based” nursing skills competition in 2023, and in 2025 added a utility model patent, third prize in the second Southern Cup electrocardiography contest, first prize in STU Medical College’s first young-faculty clinical nursing skills competition, and second prize in the Guangdong Nursing Association’s third young-faculty clinical skills competition.

Source: Southern Plus (Shantou Channel)