|
|
|
 |
| About Nick Simons Institute |
NSI is an organization working in Nepal with a mission to train and support skilled, compassionate rural health care workers.
Nepal is a country of 25 million people, who by all measures suffer not only from poverty but also from poor health. Its maternal and child mortality rates are among the highest in the world. Across the vast, rugged land, lack of access to trained health care workers is a major impediment to improving health. While the Health Ministry’s infrastructure is reasonably sound, many of its remote hospitals and health posts are staffed only by a few under-trained workers.
|
NSI reaches rural Nepal through |
1. Quality Training of Health Care Workers
NSI is helping to transform a network of excellent hospitals across the country into health care training institutions. This training takes place across a range of health care workers: doctors and nurses conducting deliveries, anesthesia officers, biomedical technicians, and mid-level health care workers.
2. Support for Rural Health Care Workers
Certain factors make it more likely that a doctor, nurse, or other worker will continue to serve productively in a rural area. NSI is developing an integrated support program. First, satellite-based communication that enables a hospital to use the internet, including for telemedicine services. Second, continuing medical education for isolated professionals. Third, support for the schooling of doctors’ children. Fourth, empowerment of community leaders to manage their local hospital. Fifth, connection with a larger regional hospital.
3. Scholarships for Health Care Leaders
Every ship needs a captain, and the presence of a good General Practice (GP) doctor in a district hospital sends positive ripples throughout the region. NSI is administering a scholarship program to provide for the training of more GP doctors, as well as other health care leaders.
|
Nick Simons Institute |
 Nick was a New York man who, having recently graduated from college, came to Nepal to work in 2002. He fell in love with the country, and returned home with the dream of becoming a doctor for the underserved. Tragically, Nick’s life ended some months later when he drowned while swimming in Indonesia.
Jim and Marilyn Simons came to Nepal to establish a project in their son Nick’s name. After funding the building of a new Maternity Ward for Kathmandu’s Patan Hospital, they challenged a group of health care professionals in Nepal to develop a new organization that would reach out to rural communities, principally through the training of health care workers. In March 2006, NSI was formed from this nucleus.
NSI is a charitable company whose Board is composed of distinguished Nepalese professionals, its Chair being Dr. Bhekh B. Thapa. The organization has its headquarters in Patan, but works through a network of health care institutions spread across the country. |
|
|
|
|
|
