The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Nursing college goes in for research

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 23, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Nursing college goes in for research

R. Sujatha

EducationPlus Omayal Achi College of Nursing ties up with Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, Canada

CHENNAI: With 14 years of experience in nursing education and training, Omayal Achi College of Nursing, an initiative of MR Omayal MR Arunachalam Trust, has embarked on another venture — research. This has come about after the success with their adopted villages in Arakkambakkam near Avadi.

The trust's community centre has helped 40 villages. "We have eradicated diarrhoea in these villages," says Sivagami Narayanan, trustee.

The nursing college has tied up with the 40-year-old Simon Fraser University in Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada, for collaborative research and exchange of faculty members and students.

The college has also a tie-up with two other foreign universities for educational programmes.

Simon Fraser launched a course in Health Science two years ago with focus on the health of entire communities based on his Canadian experience. "In 1950s, stomach cancer was a major killer.

Today, it is the least cause for death. The treatment has not changed but the policy changes brought about this transformation," explains David R. Maclean, Dean, Faculty of Health Science.

Research found that the method used for preservation of meat, such as curing and smoking, caused the cancer. Electrification of the entire country and refrigeration brought down the occurrence of this deadly disease, he says.

"A healthy nation is a three-legged stool," says John H. Waterhouse, provost and vice-president. Social equity, justice, biomedical care and political and economic environment are the three legs.

The university has launched a master's programme for health professionals called Global Health. "We have a large south Asian population in our country" and hence the initiative, the Canadian university's representative says. The initiative will help countries where public spending on health is very low.

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