1st Symposium on Learning from the Experts: A Course for the Healthcare Professionals
The Bangladesh Center for Communication Program (BCCP) organized the 1st symposium to promote the “Learning from the Experts: an Online Healthcare Professionals Course” of the Institute of Global Tobacco Control (IGTC) on April 29, 2015 in collaboration with the Bangladesh University of Health Sciences (BUHS). The symposium was held at the Auditorium of BUHS, Dhaka.
Prior to the symposium, the event was extensively advertised in different universities, medical colleges and hospitals in Dhaka through promotional posters.
The venue was decorated with the main banner and stand banners. A corner with three laptop computers with internet connections was set for on-the-spot enrollment to the online course.
More than 100 students from different medical, nursing, dental and pharmacy colleges; the principals and deans from those colleges; students of Master of Public Health; and employees of hospitals and clinics attended the symposium.
Professor Liaquat Ali, Vice Chancellor of the University of Health Sciences attended the opening program of the symposium. He appreciated BCCP-IGTC’s initiative to organize such an event in order to sensitize the healthcare professionals about their roles in tobacco control. He also expressed his interest to further collaborate with BCCP-IGTC to include the online course into the BUHS’s course curriculum and to motivate University Grant Commission to form Accreditation Council to introduce CME credit for this online course in Bangladesh.
After a brief opening, two presentations were made in the symposium. The first presentation on “Tobacco Epidemic and Its Health Effects” was made by Professor MSA Mansur Ahmed, Department of Community Medicine, Bangladesh University of Health Sciences. The second presentation was on “Role of Healthcare Professionals” by Dr. Nazrul Haque, Team Leader, JHSPH-BCCP Tobacco Control Project.
Mr. Mohammad Shamimul Islam, Deputy Team Leader, JHSPH-BCCP Tobacco Control Project made the final presentation explaining the overview of the course. He then took the participants through online course showing them how to enroll and complete it. After the session, an interactive Q/A session was held.
The participants, especially the students of medical and public health departments were very enthusiastic about the course. Around 20 participants enrolled on-site for the online course. Other participants also seemed to be excited to attend the symposium and expressed their desire to enroll for the course as soon as they return home.
The symposium concluded with a vote of thanks by Professor Khurshida Khanom, Department of Health Promotion and Health Education, BUHS. The event was anchored by Ms. Kazi Rumana Ahmed, Associate Professor of the same department of BUHS. More Photos