Peer-reviewed report published

This summer, our first report on this project was published in a peer-reviewed journal. “A Canada-Bangladesh partnership for nurse education: case study” by Alex Berland, John Richards and Karen Lund appeared in the on-line edition of International Nursing Review http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1466-7657.2010.00813.x/full. The report describes progress to date and lessons learned including the importance of 1) integrating nurse training with a general university able to provide core courses; 2) countering the low status of nursing and developing a caring attitude among students; 3) instilling critical thinking as opposed to rote learning. Next steps are identified: mechanisms to support networking in the local health system; sharing of resources; assuring program quality. The paper will be of interest to those concerned with nurse education and human resource development in less developed countries.

Nursing students involved in community research

This summer, SFU Professor John Richards a long-time supporter of IUBAT, returned to Dhaka for his umpteenth visit. On this occasion, his mission was to promote the recent publication of a study by the Centre for Policy Research, based at IUBAT. This report analyzes a detailed survey, conducted by the IUBAT College of Nursing students, of nutrition conditions and purchasing choices among women in local shanty communities over the past two years. Its principal finding is that poor nutrition due to unbalanced diet accompanied by frequent use of harmful substances is a growing threat to public health. The publication, “Benchmarking the Nutritional Status of Women in the Tongi-Ashulia Road Slums”, authored by John Richards, Afifa Shahrin and Karen Lund is available at http://www.iubat.edu/cpr/ .