Supporting nurse educators

Long-time BHP supporter, Dr. Gopal Verma (dark suit) invited Alex Berland to speak to students and faculty at East-West Nursing College in Dhaka during Alex’s latest visit. It was also an opportunity to pass along textbooks donated to BHP by the BC College of Nurses and Midwives.

As the IUBAT College of Nursing is now well-established, BHP efforts have focused on developing educational resources and support for other projects, including the global Open Access work of Nurses International, the elder care program of Sajida Health Care and a rural home care program. We are still awaiting final approval for the IUBAT Masters in Public Health program that will emphasize advanced education opportunities for nurses. At the outset, we hope to recruit international faculty volunteers to teach some classes remotely.

MPH Program at IUBAT in final review

In early summer 2021, the University Grants Commission returned our initial MPH application with reviewer’s comments. Under the leadership of IUBAT Prof. Dr. Hasnat Alamgir, BHP volunteers John Richards, Nazmul Huda and Alex Berland made the necessary revisions and re-submitted the application. In this photo, we are using a systems-thinking approach to discuss the course on maternal health services in Bangladesh. Due to the Covid pandemic we don’t expect formal student recruitment until late 2021, aiming for a program start in January 2022.

Open Education Resources now available

When BHP volunteers helped IUBAT build the College of Nursing starting in 2003, we had to create all the learning resources ourselves. We wrote the course lectures and exams based on current textbooks in various subjects so that the syllabus meets the requirements of the nursing councils in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. Each semester successive groups of visiting faculty volunteers updated and improved the content. Fifteen years later, that curriculum has been tested by volunteers with current clinical and teaching experience and used with many batches of students. We are now partnering with Nurses International, a US-based NGO to make these digitized materials available as Open Education Resources [OER], meaning everything can be downloaded, used and adapted without cost under the Creative Commons Licensing system. The intended audience is junior nurse educators who may need support as they begin their teaching careers. Please use the Nurses International link to access the materials or contact BHP if you would like to volunteer with further OER development.