Health Assessment Program at IUBAT

Earlier this year, more than 200 people who belonged to vulnerable communities were given free health services through a free community health assessment program conducted by the nursing students of the University of Business, Agriculture and Technology (IUBAT).

Conducted as part of the university’s founding anniversary celebration last month and organized by the IUBAT Nursing Society and its College of Nursing, the outreach activity provided free health services such as blood pressure measurements, vision testing, determining of body mass index, blood sugar testing, and health counselling to infants, children, adults, mothers, and geriatric residents.

As part of the activity, students interacted and assessed the needs of the communities, a significant process in health assessment programs that will capacitate them in identifying a community’s primary health care needs.

“The entire experience strengthened my resolve to graduate and eventually become a registered nurse in this country,” said Sailesh Bhandari, President of IUBAT Nursing Society, who participated in the activity.  He added that the program has allowed him to interface with the most vulnerable people in his community and allowed him to see the bigger responsibility to extend help.  “By completing my studies, I will be given the chance to practice my profession, which provide me that larger opportunity to extend help and serve my community,” said Bhandari.

The health assessment fair was supervised by four visiting international faculties from Canada and the Philippines, and involved the participation of four medical doctors who provided free health services among community members.

“Our community involvement and outreach activities are designed to provide the most needed services to highly vulnerable communities, particularly the marginalized urban poor of this city,” said Dr. Allimuyah Miyan, IUBAT vice-chancellor.

Dr. Miyan, who was the guest of honour in the event, added that IUBAT aims to strengthen community involvement of its university students, particularly those who are taking up medical and health courses, since they will be in the frontline the moment they graduate and practice their profession.

“We intend not just to develop the skills of our students, but also to shape their characters and harness their sense of community and volunteerism – important traits and values that we want to instill to our university graduates,” said Dr. Miyan.

To see more photos from the event, please go to our Flickr page by clicking here.

Visit our Flickr Site for more Photos!

The lives and experiences of the volunteers, students and faculty are chronicled and shared on this blog regularly, but did you know that you could also stay up to date with the Bangladesh Health Project through photographs?

They say that pictures are worth a thousand words, and indeed, the photos shared on our Flickr site hold a wealth of information that we haven’t yet began to blog about!  Pictures of celebrations, Bangladesh living, the classroom setting and much more can be found at our Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bangladesh_healthproject/.  

You can view the entire photostream, or by collection (simply click on the title):

Clinical Teaching Sites Guest House Neighbourhood Scenes Teaching at IUBAT

Have a glimpse of the Bangladesh Health Project as it proceeds overseas and come back often to see what else we’ve been up to!

IUBAT Alumnus Currently Training in Portugal

Sweta Sharma is a graduate of IUBAT, and since the registration of the BSc Nursing graduands, Sweta has been accepted into a Master’s Program offered as a joint collaboration between several European nations.

She writes: “I have arrived safely to Portugal to begin my scholarship and post-graduate studies.  The 18-month long program is an Erasmus Mundus Master’s in Emergency and Critical Care Nursing (EMMECC-Nursing).  It is a Joint Master’s degree organized by a consortium of 4 educational institutions in 3 European countries: The University of Oviedo (Spain, Coordinating University), Helsinki Metropolia University of Applied Sciences (Finland) and University of Algarve and Polytechnic Institute of Santarem (Portugal).  Within the program, there are two possible areas of specialization: Advanced Adult/Geriatric Clinical Nursing and Advanced Pediatric Clinical Nursing.  I have decided to specialize in Advanced Adult/Geriatric Clinical Nursing.

Our first semester is in Portugal, however, the second and third semesters will be in Spain or Finland, depending on the courses we have decided to take.  All the universities of the consortium participate in teaching activities and supervision of the Master’s thesis. Upon graduation of the program, I will obtain a joint degree signed by the University of Oviedo (Coordinating University) in the name of all participating Universities. The program will cover both the living cost and travel arrangements during the 18-month period.

Thank you for all the support during our time in Dhaka and knowledge and confidence that you all provided us.”

Thank you for your story Sweta, and the best of luck in your studies!

Congratulations on your success.