Volunteer opportunities at IUBAT College of Nursing

The IUBAT College of Nursing is a 4-year BSN program based in an English-medium not-for-profit university in Dhaka. The Bangladesh Health Project is staffed by Canadian volunteers, under the sponsorship of Vancouver’s Mid-Main Community Health Centre. We pay program costs entirely through donations and receive no government support.

At the College of Nursing, visiting faculty volunteers support IUBAT faculty to teach the nursing content, including clinical practice supervision and curriculum development. There are also co-teaching opportunities in the Master of Public Health program. Our visiting faculty are English-speaking professional educators or nurses with various qualifications and practical experience. Several volunteers have been post-graduate students simultaneously working on thesis projects. Some volunteers have backgrounds in other health care professions, such as medicine, psychiatric social work, clinical psychology, nutrition and so on. At this time, we can only host volunteers who are qualified in a health care-related field.

We cannot pay airfare, but can offer free room and board in the university guest house close to the verdant IUBAT campus. Six weeks is our preferred minimum stay so that volunteers can feel oriented and become most useful. We arrange airport pick-up and drop-off in Dhaka and all local travel, so that you are taken care of and can focus on the task during your time there. Previous visiting faculty have enjoyed their time at IUBAT, immersed in a vibrant culture, with warm collegial relationships and secure living arrangements. If you are looking for a meaningful volunteer experience, supporting a rapidly developing country, please contact us for further information BangladeshHealthProject@proton.me .

Ten years, ten thousand reads

In 2014, IUBAT’s Centre for Policy Research published “Advancing Nurse Education in Bangladesh.” This policy paper, written by BHP Director Alex Berland has since been read over 10,000 times. Berland’s “road-map” identifies three opportunities for scaling-up and strengthening nursing capacity in Bangladesh:

1)      Build a leadership coalition and guiding strategy for nursing resource development

2)      Create a country-wide collaborative effort to advance nurse education

3)      Develop system supports to raise standards in nursing education and practice

Globally, health human resources is a major concern. Since this publication, the nursing profession in Bangladesh has experienced many changes. Some have been positive such as significant improvements in public attitudes, wider recognition of the contributions of nurses, greater demand for quality education and slightly improved working conditions. Unfortunately, there continues to be wide variation in education experiences and not enough use of nurses to tackle public health concerns such as NCDs and mental health needs. Planning is now underway to update the road-map with current perspectives from working nurses and policy experts in Bangladesh.

Advancing Nurse Education in Bangladesh.

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Recognizing Dr. Karen Lund

Almost exactly twenty years ago, Dr. Karen Lund left a senior role at a biotech research company in Vancouver to volunteer with BHP. For over fifteen years, Karen lived and worked in Dhaka, serving as Visiting Faculty Chair for the IUBAT College of Nursing. Her goal was to build capacity to strengthen nurse education in Bangladesh at a time when nursing was considered “dirty work.”

In the early years, due to a shortage of local instructors, visiting faculty volunteers taught most nursing courses and supervised student practice. Karen coordinated the course offerings, directed faculty, taught several courses herself, supervised student research projects, and built the program administration. Karen’s outstanding contribution was to establish high expectations of students, promoting the idea of an international standard Bachelor of Science in Nursing delivered in Bangladesh. Summing up, Karen’s leadership of the College of Nursing in those early years resulted in IUBAT earning a reputation for producing the best educated nurses in the country.

In 2015, Karen received the Caring Governor General’s Award, a national honour recognizing significant volunteer efforts by Canadians.  The Award honours the compassionate example of selfless contributions. Karen’s work at the IUBAT College of Nursing has affected the lives not only of her many students but also the countless numbers of their future patients. She continues as International Adviser to IUBAT College of Nursing Thank you Karen for sharing your skill and dedication for such a long time.