I am Lailatul and I have been working as a Nursing Officer in the Department of Palliative Medicine at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU) in Dhaka, Bangladesh since 2012. In my role, I care for palliative patients in diverse settings, including indoor, outdoor, home care, day care, and the lymphedema clinic, as well as in slum areas.

I also coordinate the Palliative Care Assistant (PCA) course. I was part of the team that developed community-based palliative care in the Korail slum through the project “Supporting Compassionate Palliative Care Communities for Older People,” known as ‘Compassionate Korail,’ with support from The Worldwide Hospice Palliative Care Alliance (WHPCA).

I have helped over 400 nurses gain certification have served as faculty in the ECHO training program for humanitarian palliative care settings in the Rohingya camp, an online training program for healthcare workers in humanitarian settings, organized by Two Worlds Cancer Collaboration. I have also held faculty and mentor roles in the Fellowship in Palliative Care and the Foundation Course in Palliative Care at IPM, Kerala.

Despite these efforts, there remains a significant amount of work to be done to enhance training and education and to develop a nursing workforce that is familiar with and skilled in palliative care in my country. I am committed to continuing my work to address these needs.