Globe and Mail features IUBAT Nursing

In December 2009 Canada's national newspaper, The Globe and Mail wrote about our project for the series "Things That Work". Photos showed Karen Lund teaching in an IUBAT classroom and Lynn Buhler at her Vancouver Coastal Health office. Karen was quoted, "The program's biggest challenge is helping students accustomed to a rote memorization style of learning adapt to a system based on critical thinking and problem solving." Melodie Hull from College of the Rockies said, “These students will be able to change the way nursing is seen and how it does its work in Bangladesh." Thanks to the paper's National Affairs reporter Wendy Stueck for the great story.

Connecting with CAIN members

The Canadian Association for International Nursing held its first educational session in Vancouver in November with the theme, “Global Health Practice: Dreaming It, Thinking It Through and Doing It.” Alex Berland described some of the lessons learned from our project concluding, “Sometimes, you have to take a leap into the unknown.” All the presentations will be posted at http://www.cainursing.ca/ where you can also find out how to join CAIN.

Thanks to our friends at Mid-Main Community Health Centre

In early November 2009 Alex Berland and John Richards attended the Board of Directors’ meeting at Mid-Main Community Health Centre, to report on progress with the College of Nursing. As the project sponsor, MMCHC has been a key supporter from the outset. Directors Deirdre Evans, John Richards and Katia Wong have all visited and taught at IUBAT. You can read more about the other activities of this progressive primary health care clinic at www.midmaincommunityhealth.net.

Two new articles about IUBAT College of Nursing

Two of our intrepid volunteers have published accounts of their recent experiences in Dhaka. During summer 2008, Robin Scobie, a faculty member at University of Victoria, developed and taught one of the community health nursing courses. Her report is in the June issue of X-Claim! the newsletter from the Xi Eta Chapter of Sigma Theta Tau International http://www.xieta.nursing.ubc.ca/XClaimJune2009.pdf.

Katie Scott, an Emergency Room nurse from Alberta, has made two trips to IUBAT to teach medical-surgical nursing. You can read her account in the Journal of Emergency Nursing July 2009:35 (4): 277-398. http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0099-1767%2809%2900147-0

Congratulations to our first graduates

In late August, five College of Nursing students completed all the requirements to receive the Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from IUBAT. In addition to their course work, they defended a research project before a cross-university and external audience, wrote a comprehensive exam and passed an oral examination, again with a cross-faculty panel. Congratulations to Saphalata Chaudhary, Bimala Rai, Sushma Sapkota, Poonam Shah, Sweta Sharma and Sushila Shrestha! They are now eligible to apply for registration with the Bangladesh Nursing Council and begin their professional careers.

Educating future nurse leaders in Bangladesh

College of Nursing students January 2009
Originally uploaded by Bangladesh Health Project

Since 2003, volunteers from the Mid-Main Community Health Centre in Vancouver have been working with Dhaka’s International University of Business Agriculture and Technology (www.iubat.edu) to launch a nursing school. Presently there are about 80 students; the first batch graduates in September 2009. In partnership with leading hospitals in Bangladesh, we also provide upgrading for their nurses. Volunteer faculty from Canada and elsewhere are the backbone of our teaching staff. Having now completed the curriculum development for the nursing program, our next priority is to “train the trainers” and so develop local educators.

Our New Web Site

Our new website is now up!! Check it out, and learn more about the Bangladesh Health Project! Don't forget to pass the link on to your friends and loved ones.

www.bangladeshhealthproject.com