Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing

Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing Research Partnership

The Institute for Applied Health Research and the Yunus Centre for Social Business and Health have teamed up with the Grameen Caledonian Nursing College in Bangladesh to develop a long term programme of research.

In 2009, an agreement was reached between the Grameen Trust and Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) to establish a leading college for the education of nurses and midwives in Dhaka. The college, which opened its doors to students in March 2010, will develop nursing and midwifery standards in Bangladesh to an international level through the provision of the highest quality education and research

In Bangladesh, the present lack of trained health professionals is seriously hindering health development. Compared to, for example, the UK, where 680,000 registered nurses serve a population of 60 million, Bangladesh struggles with only 23,000 nurses for their population of 145 million. The opening of the College is seen as a step towards addressing the imbalance between the number of doctors and nurses in Bangladesh and high maternal and child mortality rates. It also aims to develop future nurse leaders for the area.

The founding Principal of the new nursing college is GCU’s Professor Barbara Parfitt, who is also Director of the Caledonian Centre for Global Health, (a World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre) and recipient of a CBE in 2007 for services to international health development.

This research partnership is  developing a programme of work to evaluate the longer-term impact of the Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing graduates on the health and well being of families and village communities. Further details will be available shortly.

Contacts

Professor Barbara Parfitt - Principal of the Grameen Caledonian College of Nursing and Director of Global Health Development, Glasgow Caledonian University. B.a.parfitt@gcu.ac.uk

Professor Francine Cheater – Director of the Institute for Applied Health Research, Glasgow Caledonian University. Francine.cheater@gcu.ac.uk