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.

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 .

Nursing students need good practice sites

Many nursing students in Bangladesh practice in a hospital attached to their nursing college. IUBAT College of Nursing has no hospital and its BSN students practice in several excellent institutions - general and specialized hospitals, out-patient clinics and an orphanage - through collaborative arrangements. This is similar to the situation in Canada where nursing colleges and hospitals are generally government-funded but independent. There are several reasons why Canadian hospitals value the presence of nursing students.

1.       There is enhanced prestige in being a “teaching hospital” partly because the presence of nursing faculty as outside experts helps improve standards of care for all staff, for example through bedside teaching that benefits other team members.

2.       Patients benefit from contact with students. Regular staff have many duties and nursing students can spend more time with patients and their families, providing support and education. Many patients are stressed by the hospital environment and benefit from students being available, for instance, to explain instructions about lifestyle changes recommended by the care team.

3.       Hospital staff benefit from working alongside students. Although the students have their own learning duties, they also can help to reduce somewhat the staff workload, by measuring vital signs, helping patients to ambulate and so on. And senior nurses often find that interacting with students helps them stay current with new nursing knowledge.

4.       Students are potential recruits for the hospital. Student practice is an opportunity for head nurses to identify strong candidates for future employment. In addition, student hires have already been oriented to hospital policies so will require less learning time.

IUBAT College of Nursing has also recently invested in major improvements to the nursing skills lab on campus to prepare students for clinical practice. The original equipment was mostly disused items donated by Canadian colleges, transported to Bangladesh by BHP volunteers. The new learning centre includes modern mannikins on which students can safely practice basic and advanced nursing skills such as inserting IVs and tracheostomy care. There are also vital sign monitors for each “patient”. Additional equipment has been purchased for CPR and first aid training. An instructor is available to supervise and support student practice in both regular classes and during students' free time to maximize learning opportunities. Other College of Nursing labs offer practice in microbiology, nutrition and anatomy and physiology.