Health issues in Nepal will be highlighted Thursday and Friday (19-20 April ) when BU academic and PhD student discuss their research.
Professor Edwin van Teijlingen and Mr. Pratik Adhikari from BU’s School of Health & Social Care will share research findings at the 10th Nepal Study Day in Reading.
The event will attracted researchers from across the UK and is organised by BNAC, the Britain-Nepal Academic Council. Nepal is a landlocked country situated between India and China and one of the poorest in the world. It is estimated that over 100,000 Nepalese people are currently living in the UK including retired and serving Ghurkha soldiers. This includes a small but growing people in Dorset.
Prof Edwin van Teijlingen will present an overview of a joint project with Tribhuvan University (Nepal), four UK universities, including BU and the Development Resource Centre, a NGO in Kathmandu. These institutions formed a Partnership on improving Access to Research Literature for Higher Education Institutions in Nepal (PARI) which is funded by the British Council and DFID. This project included a curriculum review of health-related courses covering all key Higher Education (HE) institutions in Nepal and a study of staff and students at these institutions to identify gaps around gathering existing research information we designed two-levels of workshops. The first comprised introductory one-day workshops we conducted at HE institutions across Nepal. The second was a five-day in-depth workshop run in January 2012 in Kathmandu. Workshops were very well attended, but a key observation was that the concept of systematic reviewing was new to the majority of Nepalese academics attending the workshops.
Bournemouth University PhD student Pratik Adhikari will be presenting findings from his thesis study on the health status of health risks in male Nepalese migrant workers in the Middle East and Malaysia. One of his conclusions is that health promotion and support for migrant workers should focus on providing insurance and easy access too health services.
Prof Edwin van Teijlingen is also a co-author on a paper presented by Dr. Padam Simkhada (Sheffield Univeristy), who is also Visiting Faculty at BU. This paper addresses the role of social, economic and demographic development in the reduction of maternal mortality in Nepal.
Dr. Steve Keen, one of Pratik’s supervisors said: “Bournemouth University is committed to increase its research involvement in international health, including its research in developing countries such as Nepal.”
“Of all UK institutions presenting at the Study Day, the BU is one of the single largest contributors,” added Prof van Teijlingen.
