KARACHI, Dec 17: The National Institute of Child Health will start BSc Nursing in its paediatrics programme in the second half of the next year. This was stated by the director of the institute, Dr Afroze Ramzan Sherali, on Monday during a press briefing arranged in connection with the 4th annual symposium of the NICH.
Dr Sherali said that necessary resources and appointments of staff had already been approved by the federal ministry for offering BSc Nursing (paediatrics) under the School of Nursing of the institute and this two-year training programme would begin in July 2008, with the first intake of at least ten students coming from various government sector hospitals across the country.
She said that a fully computerised dialysis centre had been made functional at the institute where on an average six haemodialysis sessions were held for children, a couple of whom were waiting for kidney transplantation as well.
Later, she told the newsmen that about 135 children mostly coming from poor families had been benefited through the MRI department which was made functional in April last. Highlighting the salient features of the 4th symposium of her institute, which is scheduled to be held on Dec 30, 2007 to Jan 1, 2008, the NICH director said that over 100 scientific papers, including those by eight foreign experts from India, Canada, UAE and Bangladesh, had been planned for the symposium.
The theme of the symposium is “Challenges in paediatrics in 21st century”. The inaugural session of the moot will be held at the College of Physicians and Surgeon Pakistan (CPSP) on Dec 30 in the evening, with the federal health secretary as chief guest.
Besides 12 subject-related scientific sessions and three seminars, there will be one plenary session on Dec 31, where in an expert from India, Prof R N Srivastava, the regional coordinator of the WHO and Dr Huma Qureshi, executive director of the Pakistan Medical and Research Council will make three different presentations.
Dr Jamshed Akhtar, the chairman of the scientific committee of the symposium, said that it was a difficult task to select over seventy presentations out of about 500 abstract received from national and international physicians and child specialists for the symposium.
The sessions will be held on the subjects like infectious diseases, neonatology, gastroenterology, neurosciences, nephro-urology, endocrinology, haepatology, cardiology, haematology, child abuse and trauma. There will be three seminars on chronic kidney diseases, hepatitis and tuberculosis and Aid in children.
Dr Jamal Raza will conduct three different workshops: two for doctors on the topics of “Care of newborn in delivery room” and “Disorders of sexual differentiation” and one for nurses on the theme of “Challenges in paediatrics and role of nurses in the 21st century”.
