Monday, May 23, 2011

Media support for more nurse education

Bangladesh needs more nurses according to a recent article in The Independent, one of the country’s leading English-language newspapers. http://www.theindependentbd.com/paper-edition/frontpage/129-frontpage/51142-country-needs-more-nurses-than-doctors.html In addition to describing public sector nurse education, the writer comments on the role of private sector universities and the challenges they face. She cites senior officials in the Bangladesh Nursing Council, who suggest strengthening the government’s Directorate of Nursing Service “so that development issues of this significant sector can be properly addressed.... They also emphasized appointment of officials with nursing background at the policy making level in the health and family welfare ministry.”

 

 

Visiting faculty needed at IUBAT Fall 2011

Recruitment is underway for Fall 2011. Two courses still require visiting faculty volunteers.

We teach Mental Health Nursing over two trimesters, summer and fall. The second segment starts about September 5th and runs for 12 weeks. Classes, assignments and exams are prepared. We have a good clinical placement at the National Institute for Mental Health, which is a progressive tertiary facility in Dhaka.

Similarly, Nursing Administration is offered in the fall. This also involves three hours of lecture per week and includes a full-day simulation workshop.

Elsewhere on this website you can find additional details about arrangements for volunteers. If you are seriously interested and available please contact us info@bangladeshhealthproject.com.

Monday, May 9, 2011

National Geographic features Bangladesh

Bangladesh features in the May 2011 issue of National Geographic magazine in a series on impacts of global climate change. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/05/bangladesh/belt-text This photo is taken on the same Turag River that flows past IUBAT. The article emphasizes how river flooding, rising sea-levels and stronger tropical storms will stress an already-crowded region. It quotes a population health expert on the importance of professional education as a way to relieve some of the pressures. But the theme of the article is resilience – how Bangladeshis are already adapting with their centuries of experience in crisis management. “Precisely because Bangladesh has so many problems, it's long served as a kind of laboratory for innovative solutions... proving itself far more resourceful than skeptics might have guessed.” This is no surprise to anyone who has visited IUBAT.

 

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Using technology to promote cross-cultural professional growth

Groups of BSN students from IUBAT and Vancouver’s Langara College participated in a web discussion during Fall 2008 and Summer 2009. This spring Pat Woods, a Langara College faculty member, presented the results of this project to the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing. The purpose of the student activity was to promote professional growth and to increase cross cultural understanding of nursing and health care in another country.  Students discussed professional development topics such as nurses’ roles, working conditions and social status. Langara students with family connections in China, India or the Philippines reflected on the attitudes of their relatives towards nursing. One IUBAT student stated, “…when I got to know the reality in other developed country on improvement of nursing gradually,  I also feel I can do something to change the status of nursing in my country – Nepal.” A Canadian student commented, “This will make me more culturally aware of my patients, as they may view my role as a nurse differently than someone [born] in Canada would.”