Bangladesh Health Project Plans for 2017

As the Bangladesh Health Project (BHP) progresses, we focus on new priorities and needs. With IUBAT alumni now taking more senior roles as nurse educators and managers, our volunteers offer more mentoring and coaching and less student teaching. Looking ahead, these are our objectives:

1. Provide mentoring support for faculty of IUBAT College of Nursing

BHP has completed mentorship and training of several cohorts of BSN students.  Our next goal is to strengthen nursing faculty capacity.  Through phone contact, e-mail and visiting faculty volunteers, we will assist with program development, classroom teaching, clinical supervision and student evaluation. As feasible, we will continue to supply textbooks and teaching materials. We will provide demonstration lectures for IUBAT nursing students and for staff at our teaching hospital sites.

2. Support IUBAT graduates in their professional development

In recent years, we have supported IUBAT alumni working in hospitals, colleges and NGOs with mentorship for issues related to advanced education, nursing administration and access to technical information. We will continue supporting our graduates as they advance in their careers and undertake leadership roles.

3. Develop resources to promote nurse education in Bangladesh

We will continue to offer textbooks to local nursing colleges, ideally establishing a central library for advanced materials, to be used by faculty and senior hospital staff. We will continue developing our Open Education Resource, an open-source collection of BSN curriculum materials for faculty to use in lesson preparation.

4. Build relationships with colleges and NGOs to improve health services in Bangladesh

We have good relationships with many health care organizations; some are practicum or internship sites for IUBAT, others offer good-quality education or health care services. Most are in Dhaka, while a few are in outlying areas. We will support these agencies as requested, with consultation and educational materials.

5. Support research projects on quality of health education and health services

We will arrange student internships and projects to link local and global researchers. We have the potential to support some applied research projects on quality of health services, particularly for training and mentor-ship in research.

We continue to welcome volunteers, either working from home, or at our guest-house in Dhaka. Please contact us about current opportunities.

Strides Made in Recognition of Alumni

The Bangladesh Health Project team has advocated strongly in the past for IUBAT’s Nursing Program and their graduates, working hard to allow alumni the opportunity to receive national accreditation, despite barriers along the way.  The recent hiring of 14 IUBAT Nursing graduates into civic service has been very significant because it represents acceptance of the program from the government and the medical community.  Furthermore, to get hired into government service, nurses must take the Public Service Commission Exam.  Previous to this exam, there was no merit-based appointment and nurses would enter government service due to seniority.  Currently, here is some pushback to this new change, but the serious senior nurses see the induction of this exam as a step toward the right direction.  Anecdotes from our alumni also indicate more respect shown to them by their colleagues in senior positions (even in different sectors, such as military officials), which is a much different reality than even several years ago.

We are thrilled to hear about the strides in acceptance of our graduates and recognition of their accomplishments and skills.  Through hard work and thorough training, the nursing alumni have shown their competence in the classroom, on exams, and at the workplace.

Part II: Graduate Reflects on Influence of Nursing

In this post, we continue sharing the story of Bimala, who was featured in our most recent blog entry.

“I had worked at the Midwifery Society of Nepal (MIDSON) for 1 ½ years, spanning 2012-2014, so I had the opportunity to learn a lot about normal births and respectful maternity care. When I gave birth to my baby, I had a really bad experience in the first hospital I went to, but fortunately also a good experience in the second hospital where I eventually delivered my baby. I had a strong will to give birth normally, and despite doctors’ mistreatment, I was able to stay confident and assert my wishes throughout the childbirthing process. My nursing education from IUBAT and work in MIDSON had a great role in building up that will and confidence in me. As an advocate for the right to quality health care, I felt it necessary that I share my experience with MIDSON and add to their knowledge of yet another example of professional misconduct in hospitals around childbirth in Nepal. They soon replied, offering me to publish as well as present my story in the 2nd National Midwifery Conference held on May 4-5, 2016.

I shared my story to an audience of 250 personnel from various professional backgrounds and organizations in the field of maternal and child health. A downside while presenting was that they reduced my timeslot of 30 minutes to 10 minutes (an error that the announcer made), and the time for participation from the audience was not allowed. However, all of the participants had a copy of my story with them to read and also, many of them shared their sad childbirth stories with me offstage.

All of us agreed that there is need for awareness and empowerment of mothers to speak up against the obstetric abuse to bring about the change.”

Bimala, it is truly inspiring to see the empowerment that you have gained from nursing and your resolve to use your personal experience to share knowledge and relate to others as well.  Please continue what you are currently doing, this message that you are spreading is one of importance and worth hearing, for nurses, healthcare professionals and for all of us, as patients.