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Graduate courses on nursing sought

Roundtable terms existing edn facilities inadequate

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Graduate course on nursing should be introduced in private medical colleges and universities to produce qualified and skilled nurses.
This will also improve the dignity, image and status of the nursing profession, increase employment opportunities for nurses at home and abroad and attract students with better calibre
higher and socio-economic background to this profession, providing lucrative career opportunity.
This was the unanimous view of speakers at a roundtable on 'Giving Nurses Due Recognition: Promoting Nursing Education in Bangladesh' at Sheraton Hotel in the capital yesterday.
The existing facilities for nursing education are not enough to ®he ^tar
produce adequate number of nursing personnel and meet global standards. And the government has no specific policy and guideline on graduate nursing education, the speakers said.
Nursing education including four-year diploma course both in public and private sectors and two-year BSc courses in public sector is being greatly affected due to lack of adequate teaching staff, equipment and international standard curricula, they pointed out. The government is yet to allow BSc course in private sector, they mentioned.
The roundtable was organised by American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) in collaboration with The Daily Star, Switzerland-based public health counselling firm JSI-Bangladesh and a technology-related advisory firm Katalyst.
State Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mizanur Rahman Sinha, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said his ministry will take steps to introduce graduate course in private sector if it does not harm the existing medical education in the sector
Unlike private universities, medical colleges in private sector have not increased in number, Sinha noted.
A total of 1,305 nurses are produced by 39 government Nurse Training Institutes (NTI) and 245 nurses by eight private NTIs every year, he said,
Dr Carmen Z Lamagna, vice chancellor of the AIUB said in her keynote speech that Bangladesh has only 11 nurses per one lakh people, and nursepatient ratio is 1: 35 against 1:5 in developed countries.
In Bangladesh, nurses receive low salary of Tk 1,975 to 3,920 per month whereas in developed countries, they get around Tk 1,34, 000 a month, she pointed out presenting the keynote paper.
Around 40 percent nursing position are left vacant due to lack of suitable candidates and the number of registered nurses in the country is 18,500. Of them, 12,689 are employed in public sector, about 5,000 in private sector and about 1,000 are working aboard, she said.
Moderating the roundtable, Editor of The Daily Star Mahfuz Anam said if the professional bodies collaborate his paper would be willing to institute awards such as the 'Best Nurse of the Year' to recognise services of the nursing profession in our health care system.
Nurses should be given higher place in the hospital management, he added.
Participants at the roundtable included Peter Roggeramp, manager of industry and rural service division of Katalyst, Dr Ahmed Al Kabir, chief executive JSI Bangladesh and representatives from nursing institutes.