Bangladesh is a Least Developed Country as defined by the United Nations (UN). It is on the list of the OECD Development Assistance Committee as eligible to receive official development assistance.

For several decades, Bangladesh has been a priority country for Canadian development support. Today, the Bangladeshi-Canadian community is estimated at over 100,000 and Canada's 2022 Indo-Pacific Strategy highlights the importance of the region. Current Canadian aid supports mutual priorities in the areas of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls, health, including sexual and reproductive health and rights, skills training and support to the ready-made garment sector. These development priorities are in line with Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy

In line with these Canadian priorities, BHP focused initially on nurse education because nursing leaders, physicians and outsiders informed us that nursing education was a priority in Bangladesh. More recently we have focused on rural development, primary education, post-secondary skills-training and professional development of nurse educators.

Imagine going to the hospital in your community to visit a sick relative. The crowding is so bad that there are two people in many beds; some patients lie on foam mattresses on the floor. You help your relative into the washroom: not only is it dirty but you can find neither hand soap nor towels. The doctor has prescribed medicine but you learn that the nurse refused to give that medicine unless she first received a small tip. Most of the time the nurses stay in the nursing station, rarely touching or assessing any patient. Patients needing a bath are washed by an assistant with no nursing training. Sterile supplies are in short supply and even the limited range of medicines may be unavailable.

We are not able to answer this very good question. What is clear is that change is happening very quickly, in part driven by public expectations because, as in many Less Developed Countries demand for better health care has accelerated as incomes improve.

IUBAT faculty have visited many public and private hospitals as we check out clinical practice sites for students. Practice varies across these sites depending on availability of resident physicians, organizational culture and nurse leadership in the agency.

In most hospitals, RNs seem to work more like the Licensed Practical Nurses in the Canadian system. However, in some places, especially community settings, they take on more responsibility than in Canada. Unfortunately, the rapid increase in private hospitals has also led to unregulated staff carrying out duties for which they have had no proper training.

It is also important to note that, in our experience, nurses with good training and work experience in Bangladesh possess unique strengths. They show great resilience in coping with tough working conditions and much compassion in working with challenging patient needs.