Residents of two villages near Avadi are now able to manage their lifestyle diseases better. They now have volunteers trained in identifying non-communicable diseases who help them gain access to better health care.
For the past two years, Omayal Achi College of Nursing, Puzhal, has been training volunteers in Arakambakkam and Gowdipuram, who in turn sensitise others on basic health care. Patients would be referred to the community health centre.
In a bid to reach out to patients and the community, a three-day-international conference, which was inaugurated on Wednesday, is being organised by the college to discuss ways to translate research into practice. S. Kanchana, college principal, said that the community-level workers are trained as part of programmes implemented by International Centre for Collaborative Research run by the college with University of Saskatchewan, Canada. “These workers test residents for hypentension and blood sugar levels. We are planning to extend this programme to more villages,” she said.
Another research project that has been successfully implemented is the development of a symbols board for stroke patients to communicate their needs. This is now being used in a hospital at Vadapalani. The conference with 400 delegates from across the country and abroad discussed various methods to improve nursing care by implementing research projects at community level and hospitals. Caroline Dickson, a delegate from Queen Margaret University, UK, narrated how nursing students there ventured on a project called ‘health bus’ where they reach out to patients. Online learning was also popular among the students there.
Some of the papers had to do with effectiveness of nursing intervention among diabetic clients and relationship between job satisfaction and organisational commitment of nurses.
