Project profile — Human Resources for Health in Bangladesh

The results achieved by the end of the project (June 2019) include: (1) the training of nurses has improved in Bangladesh since the project helped increase the teaching capacity and knowledge of teachers of training schools. The project created a group of 18 Master Trainers who trained 73 senior nursing managers on the core competencies of planning and supervision; 2,755 senior nursing managers and teachers received training in leadership, management, pedagogy and teaching methods which impacted approximately 3,550 students per year enrolled and graduated from these institutions; (2) the development of a Personnel Management Information System which enables the Directorate General of Nursing and Midwifery (DGNM) to better manage the recruitment of nurses; a registration data base for the Bangladesh Nursing and Midwifery Council to track the 56,733 registered nurses, 2,131 registered midwifery nurses and 9,182 community skilled birth attendants; (3) assisting the DGNM to create five Centers of Excellence in nursing education (Khulna, Bogura, Comilla, Tangail and Thakurgaon) among the 43 nursing institutes supported by the project; (4) Communities of Practice have been established in six districts with Nursing Training Institutes to facilitate peer learning among nurses from nursing institutes and hospitals; (5) 114 nurses received pre-deployment training at the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar to help them in their duties; (6) supported the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare’s National Task Force on nursing that led to the development of the recommendations and action plan on the future of nursing in Bangladesh and (7) helping the Ministry of Health to recruit 18,000 new nurses and 1,149 midwives over the course of the project. These results are contributing to ensuring the effective management of public nurse and midwifery training and services at the national level and improving the quality of maternal and newborn health services for the poor. They are also helping to raise the profile of nurses and midwives in Bangladesh.