Kathmandu, September 5

More than 500 nursing students visit the Thapathali slum everyday for their field study on Community Health Nursing as part of their first year course.

Located on the bank of the Bagmati River, the slum accommodates 220 temporary sheds with no proper drainage, water supply and electricity.

More than 1,000 people, including children, living in the slum are exposed to rainfall, wind and pollution, making them vulnerable to contagious diseases.

Suman Chaudhary, 36, a shopkeeper in the slum, said around 10 groups of nursing students from various medical colleges throng the slum for their field study. The nurses and medical students usually spend two weeks to one month in the slum collecting information and examining patients in the slum.

Som Maya Tamang, a first-year nursing student from Kathmandu Institute of Technology, said, “Nursing students gain a valuable experience in the slum where there are lots of families living in a single community with no proper sanitation and sewerage system.”

Each such team comprises four nursing students. Tamang and her other 19 friends are on their fourth week of field study on community health in the Thapathali slum.

Conducting health counselling and health check-up of pregnant women, children and the elderly are the main objectives of community health practical study.

Pregnant women are given  tips on safe motherhood, family planning and child care. Baby care lessons encourage the mothers to breast feed their babies and vaccinate their child against polio, hepatitis, measles and tetanus.

“The slum dwellers reap the benefits of free health check-ups and counseling on sanitation and hygiene,” said Nisha Rai, one of the nursing students of a group.

The slum dwellers are prone to fever, jaundice, typhoid, malaria, diarrhoea and worm infection due to poor sanitation, poverty and illiteracy.

“Lack of electricity affects the studies of children, especially those who are appearing in the SLC and other exams. Lack of clean water in the area is the main cause of harmful diseases,” she complained. According to Rai and her friends, the practical exam of the community health carries 50 marks for the data collection, identifying the lifestyle and health issues and is concerned with health check-ups and counseling to the slum dwellers. Janaki Pokhrel, a leading lady at the Thapathali slum, said the slum dwellers are very happy to get free health check-ups and counselling on primary health care for women, children and the elderly.