Call to introduce nursing courses at private varsities

The Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) of Dhaka University in collaboration with DRC on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty organised a national consultation on Institutional and Regulatory Reforms for Training of Nurses for Overseas Employment at the Spectra Convention Centre in the city yesterday, says a press release.
Health Adviser Dr AMM Shawkat Ali attended the programme as chief guest while Dr Mohammed Farashuddin, the founder vice- chancellor of East West University, was in the chair.
Dr Tasneem Siddiqui, professor of political science department and executive member of RMMRU, and Margaret Appiah of the University of Ghana presented the keynote paper.
The programme was attended by the representatives of various nursing institutes, private universities, ministry officials, Baira and international organisations working in this sector.
In his speech, Dr Shawkat noted that there is a great demand for nurses in Bangladesh and abroad.
Highlighting the government's initiative, he said over the last couple of years the government has amended the guidelines for establishing nursing institutes and the guidelines for introducing nursing courses at the private initiative.
The adviser mentioned that there is no bar on the private universities in introducing the BSc in nursing, and he suggested offering scholarships to students to meet the cost of education in the private universities.
He concluded by saying that his ministry has already decided to constitute a task force to remove the existing gap in demand and supply of nurses both at home and abroad.
In their keynote presentations, Dr Tasneem Siddiqui and Margaret Appiah stated that the global demand for nurses is increasing as the aging population in the West is on the increase and drastic fall in enrollment of nurses.
To avail of this huge opportunity, Bangladesh should take necessary steps in producing high quality nurses.
They stressed that Bangladesh can take lessons from the Philippines and Ghana in this respect.
They recommended that both public and private sector should come forward with massive investment in this sector.
They also suggested formation of an inter-ministerial and inter-agency sub-committee along with the representation from private universities and experts to develop a five-year action plan to access the global market of care-givers.
In his address, Dr Farashuddin observed that current infrastructural requirements are more of hindrance rather than encouragement.
He stressed on making the infrastructural requirement more flexible for introducing courses on nursing at the private universities.