Site Visit to Sarva Vidya Trust Nursing Assistant Training

Transcription

1 Site Visit to Sarva Vidya Trust Nursing Assistant Training By: Pradeep Jayaraman and Aparna Khare, Asha Stanford Chapter On: August 7 th, 2014 from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm. The Nursing Assistant Training program has been supported by Asha for Education since it s inception in Initially, Asha Dallas and Asha Stanford supported 2 programs a 1 year diploma course and a 2 year diploma course both in Nursing Assistance. Eventually, based on feedback from Hospitals and alums, the 1 year program was discontinued. Asha Stanford currently is the sole supporter of the Nursing Assistance program conducted by Sarva Vidya Trust. Location: The program is conducted in a few rooms of a Government Aided school called RKM Sarada Vidyalaya on Burkit Road in T.Nagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu. One room is used as the administrative office while the other is used as a classroom and houses some teaching aids for the students as well. The rooms are provided free of cost for the programs. In exchange, Sarva Vidya Trust conducts an after school tuition program called No Child Left Behind for students of this school and provides them scholarships (with the help of local donors) towards their school fees. Program Background: The Two Year Nursing Assistance program is administered to Girl students with no financial resources available and who have passed 12 th Standard but not with very high marks from villages near Madhurantakam, Vellore etc. where they have contacts with community workers/ngos. Students with this background in these villages usually end up as minimum wage workers in shoe/garment factories in the area for around 4 5 years after which they are replaced by newer and younger students who can be paid lower wages again. This is apparently commonplace with the factories employing hoardes of young workers who are bussed to and fro from the workplace. The program is coordinated by Mrs. Thenmozhi who looks after student enrolment, program coordination, progress monitoring, follow up with alumni, collaboration with other non profits and coordinating with Asha for Education. She coordinates with the community workers they have

2 contacts with, travels to the villages and talks to prospective students about the program to enroll interested students into the program. Program Structure: The Two Year Nursing Assistance program is of Bharat Sevak Samaj a central Government recognized body that has a whole plethora of vocational courses. The program is conducted in the premises of Sarada Vidyalaya in Chennai as a branch of the Paramedical Sciences division of Sivakumar School of Nursing (a Vellore based Nursing school). (Side note: Students who want to pursue a B.Sc in Nursing go to this nursing school where the fee is typically Rs. 36,000 p.a. Students from SVT get a 50% scholarship here but no hostel or lodging facilities). Note that this program trains students to be Nursing Assistants and not Nurses. To be a registered Nurse, the minimum qualification is a B.Sc in Nursing. The program here covers all aspects that Nurses need to know but does not cover things in as much depth as a B.Sc. program would. The syllabus for the course was drafted by the principal Mrs. Saraswati who also refines it continuously to keep it up to date. The Principal feels that the quality of their students is comparable to that of B.Sc. Nursing graduates. The program begins with a 15 day introductory session where the students are housed in a hostel called Abhaya Nilayam. The program has 2 tutors both having a B.Sc. in Nursing as a qualification. After the initial months, the theory classes are held only once a week on Tuesdays (for 1 st year students) and on Thursdays (for 2 nd year students). We visited the project on a Thursday and so could see the class in session and talk to the 2 nd year students in addition to the Principal (Mrs. Saraswati), the coordinator (Mrs. Thenmozhi) and the 2 teachers. Sarva Vidya Trust has tie ups with around 30 hospitals in Chennai where the students learn as interns and are later posted as full time nursing assistants as well. Internships in the first year pays Rs.1500 p.m. and second year interns are paid Rs p.m. After graduation, the students are paid between Rs.5000 to Rs.7000 p.m. depending on the hospital. This increases to Rs.8000 Rs.10,000 p.m. in a few years based on performance. The program begins in July and continues till June 30 th two years later, even though the final examinations are held in April. At the time of the site visit, in August, they were still waiting for the results of the exams held in April. SVT plans to have an alumni meet to get updates on how the alumni are doing along with the graduation ceremony once the results arrive. The Students: The program currently has 37 students in the First year and 32 students in the Second year. The school administrators feel that they might be able to handle upto 80 students per batch.

3 Asha can probably help provide contacts to SVT to Asha Chennai and other Asha project partners in Tamil Nadu from where they can get more students. Apparently, similar such programs though not equivalent in quality or placements are cropping up in rural areas as well. Parents, reluctant to sending their girl child to Chennai, are willing pay more to enroll their children into these new programs which has reduced potential enrolments to SVT. Students in urban areas seem to be unwilling to join this with other job opportunities abound. We spoke to the class of the 2 nd year students and the response to the program was highly positive. The students were happy to be in the program, happy to be in class and were happy with the hospitals they were working at. Many of the students had joined the program based on positive feedback from alumni whom they knew beforehand or were from the same villages they were from. Since these were 2 nd year students, they could also comment on the curriculum of the program and how relevant it was to the work they do in the hospitals. The general feedback about the curriculum and relevance was highly positive. They also gave a long list of procedures that they learnt in the classroom that they do regularly in the hospitals. They also felt that the teaching aids in the classrooms at SVT were good and sufficient. The students are all from Tamil medium schools (for 12 th standard) whereas the textbook for the course was in English. When asked about it, almost all the students (2 nd year) opined that they do not have a problem with that. The teachers explain the concepts both in English and Tamil and English is a subject in the 1 st year of the course as well which helps them increase their grasp of the language. Two problems were voiced unanimously by the students in the program 1. No projector in the classroom The projector that was procured by Asha funds a few years ago is now defective and they requested a new projector. That was echoed by the teachers and the management as well. 2. The hostel that they stay in when they enter the program is not very popular among the students. This was mostly because of the quality of food served at this place exacerbated by the fact they just moved to Chennai from their native villages. All students agreed that this was their only problem with the hostel. Everyone was happy with how safe they thought the hostel and facilities were. The Teachers: The program has 2 tutors, both full time. One of the tutors has been with the program for 4 years while the other has been with SVT for 1.5 years. The teachers conduct the theory classes on Tuesdays (for 1 st year students) and on Thursdays (for 2 nd year students). In the other time, the teachers conduct visits to the Hospitals where the students are interning to observe them at work, talk to their supervisors and doctors about their progress and provide feedback.

4 Both teachers mentioned that they were happy with their work at SVT and with their salaries. When asked to compare this syllabus with what they learnt in BSc (Nursing), they opined that all relevant material is covered in this program though not in as much depth as they had learnt in their 3 year B.Sc Nursing course. They were very content with the progress of the programs, the success it had seen and the difference it was making to their students. Success of the program: The program seems to be very successful since 2009 based on these observations a. All graduates of the program, since it s inception in 2009, have been successful in getting a job as a nursing assistant at a local hospital. b. Feedback from local hospitals about the SVT graduates has been excellent (as communicated both to Mrs. Thenmozhi and the teachers during their hospital visits) c. Students from the village where they have alumni coming forward to join the program is a good indicator. Other Activities of SVT: 1. They have also been collaborating with local hospitals and colleges (Eg. Chettinad and Karpaga Vinayaka) to conduct health camps in the villages where they have students and/or alumni. This not only addresses health needs in these communities, but also serves to showcase the education that the students/alumni have received in the program to their villages and helps to enroll more students as well. They have currently finished around 12 health camps around Vellore and more such initiatives are in the works. 2. They provide scholarships to students studying in this RKM Sarada Vidyalaya and conduct after school coaching for the students with the help of some volunteer part time teachers. Local donations are currently used to fund this program. 3. The after school program, called No Child Left Behind is coordinated by a former Principal of the RKM SV school where this is conducted. We were able to see some children being tutored by a volunteer, but did not spend much time here. Summary: In summary, the SVT Nursing Assistant program seems to be doing excellent work and the successes speak for themselves. It would be good to increase enrolments to the maximum number they can manage given their current infrastructure to enable more students to get this nursing training. AfE should be able to help with this by connecting them to Asha Chennai and to the large number of other projects we support around Tamil Nadu.

5 One aspect of high concern is that the program is fully dependent on funds from Asha Stanford. A bad fundraising year or sudden volunteer drop out at the chapter will have severe consequences to this project which might not be able to cope with it. Project stewards of the project should try to connect SVT with potential sources of funding for the project in India (CSR funds, Rotory/Lions Club etc. which are active in Chennai). Writing grants towards other foundations set aside for women s empowerment and girl s rights would also be a good option.