BEIJING, May 12 (Xinhua) -- China needs more nurses and should strengthen the education and training of nurses to meet society's needs, said a senior nurse Tuesday in Beijing.

"We should enhance the publicity to attract more people to join us, the school curriculum needs improving and the course content has to be more practical," said Wu Xinjuan, head of the nursing department in Peking Union Medical College Hospital, at a press conference.

China had 4.45 million registered nurses by the end of 2019, an increase of 350,000 from 2018, said Wu, who was awarded the Florence Nightingale Medal in 2011.

"The COVID-19 outbreak taught us that we need to pay more attention to areas such as the public health nursing process and emergency response," said Wu.

Wu called for efforts to train more nurses in elderly care, rehabilitation care, community services and intensive care.

China's elderly population, people age 65 and over, has reached more than 170 million, of whom, over 40 million are disabled or semi-disabled, said Wu.

Nursing schools should work closely with the hospitals to encourage the students to start clinical practice as early as possible, Wu suggested.

She also stressed the importance of on-job training for the nurses due to the rapid development of technology and the medical care industry.