News from Nurses International

The January 2025 newsletter from our friends at Nurses International highlights an open access course on Nutrition in Nursing. Like the other open education resources available from the NI website, this course has been developed by expert faculty and includes hands-on practical experiences. The course covers health promotion, nutritional care strategies across the lifespan, and clinical applications in disease prevention and management.

NI has an impressive global impact, with course enrollment from over 100 countries. The newsletter describes NI’s organizational growth, now with a Clinical Alliance supporting agencies and practice-based educators; an Academic Alliance to support nurse educators, and a Nursing Consultant program that helps implement curriculum resources. If you are interested in shaping the future of nursing education worldwide, please contact NI at info@nursesinternational.org.

BHP update January 2025

Since BHP began in 2004, hundreds of individuals have participated as visiting faculty and donors. You deserve a BIG THANK-YOU! for your unwavering support. Having completed our initial task to start a nursing college, we now focus to requests from Bangladesh partners. (Our website and our blog have much more information.)

1.    In Bangladesh our partner, Oasis for Posterity, delivers various programs in the village of Balagram. John and Alex visited Balagram in February 2024, conducting an assessment of primary student learning and meeting OfP vocational college faculty and OfP school teachers as well as local families who told us about their need for better access to health care services.

2.    In the twenty years since BHP helped start the IUBAT College of Nursing [CoN] demand for nursing education has increased dramatically. In February and November visits, Alex connected CoN faculty with Sajida Foundation staff who are recruiting RNs for their new psychiatric hospital.

We are again recruiting visiting faculty at the IUBAT CoN, so please share this opportunity.

3.    The IUBAT Masters of Public Health Program now has over thirty students enrolled in Years One and Two. Our spring and fall visits were a welcome opportunity for us to teach face-to-face.

4.    Other BHP activities. During February, we met with officials in Dhaka to discuss immigration of Bangladeshi nurses to Canada. We also assisted Sajida Hospital with a  planning session on quality improvement. In November, Alex spent three weeks assisting Sajida Foundation with development of its mental health programs. The IUBAT CoN graduate enrolled in PhD studies at Oxford University is progressing well. There are more updates and details in the "BHP Update" document below.

5.    Your contributions make a difference! This is how the money was spent:

• Most was spent on building construction and teaching equipment for OfP Institute of Science and Technology [OIST] a technical-vocational college, which opened in 2022. The initial batch of students studying Civil Engineering and Computer Technology, will graduate in 2026. OIST also hosts a health clinic for people suffering chronic illness.

• This past year, donors paid for upgrades to Bluebell primary school, for classroom furniture, teaching materials and equipment as well as a new outside toilet and landscaping.

• A major on-going expense is salaries for teachers at Bluebell and OIST. John and Alex each contribute $18,000 per year to cover salaries and overhead costs. Currently, most OIST students receive grants or loans to cover some of their fees. Over time, OIST will be self-supporting, but we are not there yet.

• Health and education bursaries are a lesser expense but extremely important for the recipients. For instance, cataract surgery in one eye costs about $50; a bursary to keep a female student in high school is $40 per semester . We recently created scholarships to recognize donors and contributors like Dr. Karen Lund, founding CON coordinator.

6.    100% of your donations are spent on BHP programs; all administration and personal travel costs are paid by the directors. Vancouver’s Mid-Main Community Health Centre continues to host BHP activities and issues CRA charitable donation receipts for health programs. You can donate here or for more information, please contact us.

Thank you again for your support to communities in need. We welcome questions and feedback.  John Richards and Alex Berland

BHP Update January 2025.pdf

Download PDF • 1.13MB

What does good home care look like?

BHP Director Alex Berland with caregivers at Sajida Foundation offices November 2024

BHP Director Alex Berland recently spent time with members of the care team at Sajida Foundation’s home care program. The program is preparing for a major expansion with more affordable services to support middle-income families who are looking after an elderly relative at home. The purpose of the meeting was to learn from front-line care providers about their experiences serving these vulnerable clients.

One caregiver, Sonia, described her 55-year-old female client who had suffered a major stroke. This client lives in an under-staffed private hospital where she had developed a severe bed-sore due to lack of attention. Sonia was following all the skin care treatments she learned during her training at Sajida. (BHP volunteers initially helped to develop the training program several years ago.) Despite Sonia’s efforts, her client’s bed-sore did not improve. “What could be going on?” Sonia asked herself. She came to suspect a lack of nutrition because the patient, who could not swallow safely, was being tube-fed.

Investigating with the hospital kitchen, Sonia discovered the feeding mixture did not contain the nutrients necessary for wound healing. Once a better mixture was supplied, the client’s wound healed and has not returned. With this problem resolved, the client’s mood improved and with Sonia’s encouragement to mobilize she is slowly overcoming some of the effects of her stroke. What makes this story more impressive is that Sonia is a caregiver, not a registered nurse. However, with her basic training by the Sajida team and on-going guidance from her supervisors, Sonia applied critical thinking to make a significant difference in her client’s life. This example shows the impact of good home care and helps explain why there is such a demand for these services in Bangladesh.