The Nick Simons Institute is a Nepal-based organization whose mission is to train and support competent health care workers for rural Nepal. The country's mountainous terrain and poverty pose immense barriers to the provision of medical care for people living in remote communities. More than half of Nepal's rural districts don't have basic emergency services, including operations.
NSI works according to several principles:
Collaborate closely with the Nepal government – the main rural health care provider.
Select strategic training cadres – which involves 'task-shifting' from traditional medical roles.
Extend beyond training – to include workplace support and advocacy.
Innovate – based on a growing body of research in the Nepal context.
Programs
NSI three program areas – training, rural staff support, and advocacy – emerge from Nepal’s health care situation.
Training
Two principles guide NSI’s training section: (1) Select those cadres most likely to have impact in the government’s rural system, and (2) Partner with Nepal’s best hospitals to provide quality training.
- Anesthesia Assistant Course
- Biomedical Equipment
- Mid-Level Practicum
- Skilled Birth Attendant
- Ultrasound Training
- CME
- Training Follow-up
- Training Map
Rural Staff Support Program
The Rural Staff Support Program (RSSP) enhances the effectiveness of Nepal's government district hospitals, transforming them into institutions that can provide a range of services, including operations.
Nepal’s Ministry of Health and Population and the Nick Simons Institute began RSSP in 2007, and today 6 government district hospitals are supported under this program. Before implementation of RSSP, all were poorly functioning hospitals located in underserved areas.
Advocacy
The Nick Simons Institute works to change perceptions and policies that affect the rural health care worker. Advocacy and NSI’s other programs complement each other. Advocacy urges policy changes that will augment training and rural staff support. Field work provides ‘on-ground-information’ that makes advocacy credible.
Although health care workers are essential members of every rural community – and local people realize this – often times the government and general public living in the cities don’t appreciate the role of rural workers nor realize the situations they work under.
Some key advocacy issues are:
1. Creation of adequate numbers of appropriate government posts to complete rural health care teams.
2. Development of institutional environment, including management systems, to promote rural health care workers’ work.
3. Realization that rural health care workers often perform heroic tasks that go un-noticed.
4. Reducing the sense of professional isolation, which is a barrier to effective work.
NSI works through a number of mechanisms to advocate for rural health care workers: radio, print, and public speaking; worker conferences and newsletters; and knocking on the doors of policy makers.