A Brief Proposal on Preparing Healthcare Workers in Bangladesh Friday January 04 2008 14:30:59 PM BDT By Professor Mahfuz R. Chowdhury A brief proposal on Preparing healthcare workers in bangladesh Introduction:It is a well known fact that the demand for healthcare workers in the advanced as well as other countries of the world is both huge and expanding. One of the contributing factors is indeed longer life expectancy. These healthcare workers consist of nurses, nurse's aides, physical therapists, medical assistants, dental assistants, x-ray technicians, lab assistants, hygienists, homecare attendants for the elderly, and others. Currently, India, Sri Lanka and the Philippines are dominating in these fields. Bangladesh, by setting up a special school or program for preparing these healthcare workers, could compete with these countries for such jobs abroad. Considering the prevailing economic and manpower situation, Bangladesh has a great potential for success. But the obvious question is: how best to organize the country's manpower to accomplish this? To achieve such an objective, the country could take both short and long term plans. It might be true that the well-to-do in the country would be less inclined to take up these healthcare professions, but the poor might face serious financial constraint in pursuing such careers. Therefore, the government would have to provide stipends to the poor students. If necessary, the government could seek financial assistance from the World Bank or other international organizations to set up or even run this program. Short-Term Plan: This program should begin with a national campaign to motivate the citizens to take up healthcare professions with the sole purpose of going abroad. People might be somewhat reluctant to accept these professions in the beginning, but in view of the existing high unemployment rate in the country, many people would be inclined to embrace healthcare professions. This is especially true in the case of those who are in the low income bracket. Initially, a pilot program with selected healthcare fields may be started in the city of Dhaka with readily available candidates with bachelor degree in science. The students that have obtained their B.Sc. degree with Biology in good standing should be considered for this program. These students could be organized for crash courses in certain healthcare fields. Some specialized healthcare professions would require rigorous training which might necessitate a longer time to prepare, while some could be readied in a much shorter time. Thus, depending on the healthcare field chosen, 2 these students could be trained and readied to take up jobs abroad in two years or even in a shorter period of time. After having gained enough experience and measured the pilot program's overall success, the program could be expanded to cover other parts of the country. Using the experience of the pilot program, special procedures for a long term program could then be developed. Long-Term Plan: In order to train and market healthcare workers abroad, a long term national program with specific goals should be established. The government could begin by establishing a National Healthcare Institute (NHI) in the country for coordinating the overall training and granting of diplomas in healthcare fields. The NHI could function as an extension to the country's Central Medical College or Post Graduate Medical College in Dhaka. All courses in healthcare could be provided at the country's medical colleges. Thus, the NHI would operate with a much smaller budget as it need not to maintain a big faculty or class room facilities, except for a specific training or course in healthcare that might not be offered by the existing medical colleges. In all circumstances, however, the NHI would be responsible for establishing course syllabus for all healthcare fields, even though the students might be taking those courses at different medical colleges. If it is desirable, the Ministry of Education could play a part in initiating the program from the nation's high school. Whether the Ministry of Education is engaged there or not, the NHI should be the final coordinator of the program after HSC examination. Once students have earned their healthcare diplomas by using the procedures outlined below, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in collaboration with the Ministries of Labour and Expatriates, could coordinate their job search abroad. Program Implementation: The following guidelines might be used for selecting the prospective candidates from different parts of the country and for implementing the long term program: The Ministry of Education could start by setting up an Education Department in each Division of the country. This Department would then request all high schools within its jurisdiction to submit a list of potential candidates for healthcare professions. The list would include interested students from the science group who might achieve at least second division in the SSC Examination. The Divisional Education Department, in collaboration with the NHI, would screen the prospective candidates by administering a standard test, which would include students' basic knowledge of English. The final candidates could be selected based on the students' educational record and the quota to be established by the Ministry of Education for each Division. After the selection, the students would be given a list of courses to take, preferably in English, for their HSC examination at designated colleges in their area. Alternatively, the Ministry of Education, without creating the Divisional Education Department, could simply circulate specific guidelines for high school students who 3 intend to pursue healthcare fields on the type of courses they would need to take for their HSC Examination. Once students have successfully completed their HSC examination with acceptable grades, they would be scrutinized again and accepted for a healthcare field based on their academic achievements and available seats in each field. After a healthcare field is chosen through this process, students would then be assigned to a medical college within their respective area for taking the assigned courses. For a course not offered there, the NHI would make special arrangements to provide such instructions. Thus, for all academic courses to be taken after HSC, the NHI would maintain a register of students for its program even though they would be attending different medical colleges in the country. The NHI would monitor their work to ensure that proper education standard is maintained everywhere. Upon completion of all required courses, including computer literacy and English proficiency, the NHI would administer the final test before granting its healthcare diploma. In the case of students with financial constraints, the government would provide necessary stipends to the prospective students for both HSC and medical college courses. These stipends, however, might be provided as a loan to the students, with stipulation that the money would be reimbursed to the government in installments after they successfully gain employments either abroad or at home. Foreign Affiliation: In order to increase the acceptability of Bangladeshi trained healthcare workers abroad, the National Healthcare Institute should try to obtain affiliation or make other special arrangements with a reputable foreign university for the adopted programs. The arrangements with a foreign university might be obtained in one of three ways: (1) By employing the foreign university as a consultant or advisor, (2) By engaging the university to provide all technical supports without requiring it to award any diploma in its name, or (3) By forging a full partnership with the university to manage all academic programs as well as awarding of diplomas in its name. The costs of any such arrangement would vary depending on the type of plan adopted. For example, in the latter case, foreign university would insist on directly managing courses after HSC examination, which would invariably contribute to much higher costs. Marketing of Graduates: The National Healthcare Institute could organize a highly professional employment consulting service to advise the diploma holders on marketing themselves abroad. It could provide the candidates with computers and internet services in different locations in the country. The students would try to collect employment data through the internet and other sources, and would attempt to obtain job offers on their own. However, in some cases their information might be limited or insufficient. So the government might have to take the ultimate responsibility for marketing them abroad. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs could take the initiative by floating circulation to all foreign embassies in Dhaka on the availability of graduated healthcare workers in the country. In addition, it could send fliers to its embassies abroad for circulation to the 4 prospective employers there. Bangladeshi doctors working abroad could also provide important leads. If and when the Foreign Ministry locates a big employer of healthcare workers in a foreign country, such as a medical center, hospital or nursing home, it could try to negotiate a job contact with the respective employer. It could even try to obtain some kind of preferential treatment for Bangladeshi healthcare workers from the host government, where such arrangements might be helpful or available. The Foreign Ministry, after collecting the employment data from its foreign sources, would submit the available information to the Ministries of Labour and Expatriates for their processing of the job applications with the diploma holders. For this purpose, all the Ministries could establish a workable procedure to assist the candidates in obtaining their job offers. The government might even move to set up a separate department to coordinate the whole process. In special circumstances, some candidates might require financial assistance for their travel abroad even after they have obtained their job offers either through their own effort or through the government. The government could arrange for their overseas travel expenses by establishing a procedure for reimbursement. Conclusion: This is merely an outline of a plan. Before implementing a plan of this nature many more details would have to be worked out. But it is feasible. With good education and proper management of the program, Bangladesh could easily compete with other countries in healthcare professions. By increasing the country's manpower export through such a program, Bangladesh could not only reduce its unemployment rate at home, but also significantly boost its foreign exchange earnings. Note: If the government is interested in adopting this proposal and require additional information, including obtaining affiliation with an American university, may contact: ----------- The author teaches Economics at the CW Post Campus of Long Island University, New York E Mail : Mahfuz.Chowdhury@liu.edu __._,_.___
*****************************************
Sign the Petition : Release the Arrested University Teachers Immediately : An Appeal to the Caretaker Government of Bangladesh
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/university_teachers_arrest.htm
*****************************************
Daily Star publishes an interview with Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/news/daily_star/daily_star_MM.pdf
*****************************************
MM site is blocked in Islamic countries such as UAE. Members of those theocratic states, kindly use any proxy (such as http://proxy.org/) to access mukto-mona.
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates 5th Anniversary
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/5_yrs_anniv/index.htm
*****************************************
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Earth Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Earth_day2006/index.htm
*****************************************
Kansat Uprising : A Special Page from Mukto-Mona
http://www.mukto-mona.com/human_rights/kansat2006/members/
*****************************************
MM Project : Grand assembly of local freedom fighters at Raumari
http://www.mukto-mona.com/project/Roumari/freedom_fighters_union300306.htm
*****************************************
German Bangla Radio Interviews Mukto-Mona Members:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/german_radio/
Mukto-Mona Celebrates Darwin Day:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/Special_Event_/Darwin_day/index.htm
*****************************************
Some FAQ's about Mukto-Mona:
http://www.mukto-mona.com/new_site/mukto-mona/faq_mm.htm
****************************************************
VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
****************************************************
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
Change settings via the Web (Yahoo! ID required)
Change settings via email: Switch delivery to Daily Digest | Switch to Fully Featured
Visit Your Group | Yahoo! Groups Terms of Use | Unsubscribe
__,_._,___