Adult daycare in Bangladesh

Our colleague Prof. Hasnat Alamgir has written several editorials about important health care system issues in Bangladesh. In his latest piece, he describes how needs of elderly people are not being met due to social and demographic changes. Although there is a growing population of older adults, more female relatives now work outside the home and low-wage domestic helpers are less available. At the same time, Alamgir writes, social, religious, and family value systems discourage children from sending their parents to residential care facilities. He proposes adult daycare as a culturally appropriate option. This is also compatible with home support services, something that BHP volunteers have supported at the Sajida Foundation. In other columns for Financial Express, Prof. Alamgir has written about food safety, patient satisfaction, health outcome measures, and occupational health with a special focus on garment factory workers.

Congratulations to Mid-Main CHC

BHP’s long-time sponsor, Mid Main Community Health Centre, moved into a brand-new purpose-built clinic this month. The new premises are close to Mid-Main’s former home on Main Street in Vancouver. That building was satisfactory but near the end of its life and certainly not ideal for working under Covid conditions. Mid-Main’s Executive Director Irene Clarence led the entire CHC team through a planning process with the architects so the new space is designed around patients’ needs. “After two years of planning,” Irene says, “We are thrilled to have a new home that is so well-suited to the community health centre model of care.”

Extending our impact

In previous posts we described how the impact of BHP volunteers is being extended through Open Educational Resources distributed by Nurses International (NI). Our latest contribution creates access to administrative policies, templates, and tools that can be used by educational institutions for their nursing programs.

Dr. Karen Lund and Alex Berland originally developed these administrative resources, which now have potential for global impact. This continues the collaboration of BHP, IUBAT College of Nursing, and NI. Previously, the IUBAT English-medium BScN curriculum was converted by NI into an international resource that has been used in more than 140 countries.

Each jurisdiction has its own regulations related to nurse education programs. Because these materials are now “Open”, users can freely download and adapt them to comply with their regulatory environment. If you would like to contribute policies and procedures, please contact info@nursesinternational.org.