How nurses coped during the pandemic

IUBAT faculty recently published “Coping strategies that motivated frontline nurses while caring for COVID-19 patients.” College of Nursing faculty Moustaq Rony and Kanika Islam were mentored by Hasnat Alamgir, Professor of Public Health to develop this scoping review. The authors identified 44 strategies that motivated nurses, categorized into five main themes: nurses' self-strategies, nurses' strategies at the ethical level, employers' strategies, nursing leaders' strategies and supplementary strategies. They conclude, “Nurses acted by adapting different strategies to continue taking care of patients in hostile environments and these strategies helped them maintain emotional stability while doing their duty in difficult situations. …This study provides novel and distinctive data on nurse resiliency from the viewpoints of individuals, nursing teams and nursing leadership.”

Rony MKK, Islam K, Alamgir HM. Coping strategies that motivated frontline nurses while caring for the COVID-19 patients during the pandemic: A scoping review.J Nurs Manag. 2022 Sep;30(6):1881-1891. doi: 10.1111/jonm.13644. Epub 2022 May 23. PMID: 35483749; PMCID: PMC9115125.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35483749/

Health and social policy briefs

For many years, John Richards arranged for Simon Fraser University students to spend a term in Bangladesh at IUBAT. Many of the students wrote their Masters thesis at SFU based on a project at IUBAT. John published these as monographs for IUBAT’s Centre for Policy Research.

In Monographs #7 - #12, which refer to health policy, the students worked with local experts. Dr. Karen Lund helped with #7, “Benchmarking the Nutritional Status of Women in the Tongi-Ashulia Road Slums.” BRAC staff helped with #8 “Improving Nutritional Status for Women in Low-Income Households” and #9 “Education Success and Nutrition: Is there a link?” Alex Berland wrote on nursing policy in #10 “Advancing Nurse Education in Bangladesh."

Advancing Nurse Education in Bangladesh.pptx

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Dr. Nazmul Huda helped with #11 “Does More Money Mean Better Health?” For many of these monographs, John was not only editor and publisher but also a co-author, including #12, “Reducing Under-Five Mortality.” An IUBAT alumnus has created a good web site containing pdfs of all these monographs.

MPH approved for IUBAT

On August 2, 2022 the Bangladesh University Grants Commission approved IUBAT’s application to open a 2-year Master of Public Health program. Professor Dr Hasnat Alamgir will Chair the program. The first students will be admitted in January 2023. First semester courses will include Health Systems of Bangladesh; Health Education, Promotion and Communication; Biostatistics; One Health; and Epidemiology.Prof. John Richards, Dr. Nazmul Huda and Alex Berland will assist with teaching and engaging other international faculty as guest lecturers.