UP students can pay tuition fees at the comfort of their home with ABA mobile app

Good news for all UP students! While you stay safe at home and continue education online, you can now pay your tuition fees in just a few taps using your smartphone!

Simply launch ABA Mobile, tap Payments and select Education, scroll to University of Puthisastra – UP and click pay. Not only that it is quick and easy, but also free!

The online payment is a fully integrated payment solution allows parents, students, and guardians to pay using ABA mobile app from any locations, 24 hours a day. University of Puthisastra is happy to announce the partnership with ABA Bank. Students now have full access to online payment and captures the appropriate receipting information for their future references. There is no better time to be studying at UP!

2020

International

Nurses Day

2020, 12th May, International Nurses Day
2020, 200 year anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth
2020, Year of the Nurse and the Midwife, WHO
2020, Year of the coronavirus pandemic
2020, Year the world witnessed.

Nurses Nursing the World to Health
It may be through the tragedy of the pandemic, there comes the prospect that nurses are \recognized globally for the immense and unique contribution they have always made to people’s health. It is certainly through the
tragedy of the coronavirus pandemic we are hearing heartwarming stories reflecting the breadth of the role and responsibilities of modern nurses –something Annette Kennedy (President, ICN) identifies as very poorly
understood globally when she says that people “do not truly appreciate the outstanding value of nursing to every person on the planet”.

Some of these stories speak of the depth of scientific knowledge required by nurses to care for critically ill patients. The science of nursing lies in the clinical abilities- knowledge and skills- of the nurse to carry out physical assessment, nursing diagnosis, a treatment plan for implementation including referral on to other team members where appropriate and to ensure holistic management of a patients care.

Some stories speak of the intensely intimate relationship with dying patients who cannot have their loved ones with them in their passing hours – this reflects the depth of the art of nursing or the skilled and creative way a nurses uses self to transmit emotion and meaning to another. Whether a nurse is looking after a dying patient or a patient in outpatients clinic for follow up, this transmission of self is a process. It is subjective and personal. It requires nurses to be able to interpret their patients ‘ at the moment’’ needs.

It requires sensitivity and above all active participation with the patient (Jenner, 1997). It is the caring fundamental to enabling patients to progress through their journey with the least possible distress.

Nursing demands that nurses understand the fundamental needs of patients on every human level for every patient cared for. Komatsu and Yagasoki (2014) refer to this as the power of nursing.

This power of nursing has the potential to enable health systems across the entire world to achieve high quality, accessible and affordable healthcare. Through a sheer weight of numbers, the scientific reasoning and intimacy with the patients that underpins the profession of nursing.

Nurses are Nursing the World to Health!

References
Jenner, C.A. (1997) The Art of Nursing: a concept analysis. Nurs Forum. 32(4):5-11.
DOI:10.1111/j.1744-6198.1997.tb00970.x

Komatsu, H., Yagasaki, K., The power of nursing: Guiding patients through a journey of uncertainty, European Journal Oncology Nursing Society (2014), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ejon.2014.03.006

Celebrating the History of Nursing

The first documents recording a nurses role in providing care for the sick in hospitals is the Roman times, 300AD. Nursing as an occupation for young women continued to noted in the history records over the next centuries as the ‘çalling’ to become a nurse became socially acceptable through religious orders care of the poor and the sick. At the beginning of the 17 century, with the closing of monasteries and convents the nursing role in wider society became much less visible. The fact that nursing developed into the profession it is today is, in large apart, due to Florence Nightingale, a social reformer, a statistician, a feminist and a writer, born in 1820. She became prominent in society, as the ‘Lady with the Lamp’, when she led a team of 38 nurses to the Crimea War. The majority of soldiers were dying from infection rather than from injury. Within weeks, the nurses had greatly reduced the death count through the application of Nightingales principles’ of good sanitation, ventilation, and healthy nutrition.

Florence Nightingale`s vision of educated women, using scientific principles, delivering compassionate care to the sick eventuated in 1860 with the opening of the first secular school of nursing in the world -the Nightingale Training School for Nurses, which continues today as part of Kings College, London. Florence Nightingales social reforms influenced the future of healthcare in Britain and wider. Alongside this, she was a strong and active advocate for women helping to abolish prostitution laws that were unforgiving of women and lenient to negligible for men. She helped institute training for midwives and nurses working in workhouse infirmaries enabling the increase of workforce participation-and economic freedom for women that was socially acceptable. Nightingale continues to inspire nurses all over the world with her legacy of dedication and innovation. The combined events of the WHO declaring 2020 Year of the Nurse & Midwife in this 200th year after Florence Nightingales birth and the global catastrophe of the coronavirus have indeed seen 2020 become the ….

Dr Khom Pisal Selected for Mentor Mentee Program

“Nurturing Young Dental Researchers in IADR Southeast Asian Division”

The Southeast Asian (SEA) Division of the International Association of Dental Research includes Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and Nepal. Not only do young dental researchers from some of these countries have financial difficulties to conduct research, but they also lack proper infrastructure, access to cutting-edge technologies and senior, well-experienced dental researchers to guide them.

IADR SEA Mentor Mentee Program was initiated in 2015 to support young dental researchers from the SEA low-income countries by matching them with senior, experienced mentors from the region. IADR SEA Mentor Mentee Program was initiated in 2015 to support young dental researchers from the SEA low-income countries by matching them with senior, experienced mentors from the region.

In 2019 the IADR (SEA) called for applications for mentees from each of the beneficiary countries, including Cambodia. This year Dr Khom Pisal, UP Dental Business Development Manager was chosen as one of the two dentists from Cambodia. Each mentee is expected to present a short research proposal for funding (capped at US$2000). Thereafter, IADR will select an appropriate mentor in the respective field of dental research who will help develop mentee’s proposal. Subsequently, the mentee will conduct the research project under the supervision of regional and international senior dental researchers. In addition to regional mentors, IADR will also introduce international experts to the mentees in their respective fields of study. The program will enable them to obtain a great research experience to further their careers in Dentistry.

The mentees are expected to present their work at IADR SEA meetings, and if possible in IADR General meetings. IADR SEA will help with some additional funding in the form of travel award for the mentees to take part in these IADR meetings. The IADR SEA will also organize a mentor-mentee networking session. This will include more career development guidance in the areas of preparation of mentees for local and international funding, supervision of postgraduate students and international aid for local dental research projects. This will ensure these young researchers will become local dental research leaders in future.

Moreover, mentees will have opportunities to publish their research work in international reputable journals under the supervision and support from mentors. Hence, there will be a measurable research outcome from the proposed study.

Congratulations to Dr Pisal who last year completed her MPH/MHM in Australia and is now keen to become more involved in some of the research that the Faculty of Dentistry is doing. She is planning a research study on Cambodian dentists perceptions and practices related to Covid-19.

Volunteer Jobs at Ucare Pharmacy

Volunteer students under the supervision of a certified pharmacist will support the validating and processing of prescription, manage the inventory of medication and other supplies in pharmacy. This is also a great opportunity for students who are interested in how a pharmacy opens, runs and operates. On the other hand, volunteer work potentially makes students different in their profession by expanding the professional networking, strengthening leadership skills, and building a credential resume. Some colleges offer volunteer programs in partnership with pharmacies particularly community pharmacies. Similarly, UP Faculty of Pharmacy has initiated such a program for more than 5 years.

Volunteer students under the supervision of a certified pharmacist will support the validating and processing of prescription, manage the inventory of medication and other supplies in pharmacy. This is also a great opportunity for students who are interested in how a pharmacy opens, runs and operates. On the other hand, volunteer work potentially makes students different in their profession by expanding the professional networking, strengthening leadership skills, and building a credential resume. Some colleges offer volunteer programs in partnership with pharmacies particularly community pharmacies. Similarly, UP Faculty of Pharmacy has initiated such a program for more than 5 years. Many pharmacy students have been sent to do volunteering work in different places such as pharmaceutical industries, drug import and export companies, hospital pharmacies, community pharmacies, medical laboratories and other institutions. Despite the restriction and social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, 13 year-3 and year-4 pharmacy students are willing to do volunteering work in Ucare pharmacy chains in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap to improve their clinical skills and soft skills. With 22 locations and close to 60 certified pharmacists on duty, Ucare pharmacy is the first and most comprehensive network of stores dedicated to your health, wellness and beauty around Cambodia. Within this potential resources, and collaboration, the volunteer program will make another success for UP pharmacy students regarding their academic and professional careers.

NURSES

ALWAYS IMPROVING THEIR COMPETENCY OF PRACTICE

NURSES ARE THE HEART OF HEALTH CARE, NURSING IS AN ART, NURSING IS A SCIENCE

Nursing competency has been extensively addressed in the literature in terms of safety and quality of nursing care.
Nurses! you are the workforce that will have the most significant impact on improving the health of our population!
Nurses! Continuing education builds on the knowledge and skills required for improving health of people in your community, as well as your own
self-development, and improving your income!
Nurses! are recognized globally as the largest and most significant human resource in all healthcare organizations.

Nurses concern for patient safety and security, patient quality of care, as well as nurse safety and security, are impacted significantly by changes in science and technology, cost containment, insufficient time, among many other things. It is very important that nurses take up the challenge of changing times and continue to improve their own competency with continuing education.

Upgrade your nursing degree and register in the BSN Bridging Program at UP in Academic Year 2020 – A VERY SMART CHOICE!!

Nurses! UP offers all associate degree nurses this opportunity to upgrade your knowledge in the BSNB program! The program is established to help our nurses to work smarter and safer!

During the coronavirus situation, BSN Bridging students at UP continue their advanced learning as per the normal schedule but through online teaching and learning.

UP ORTHODONTIST PUBLISHES

IN TOP INTERNATIONAL ORTHODONTICS JOURNAL

UP lecturer in orthodontics, Dr Adith Venugopal (BDS, MS, PhD, FICD, FPFA) has just had two papers accepted in the highly respected Journal of Clinical Orthodontics ( JCO). Because the articles are related to Covid-19, they are being rushed into online publication within the next few days.

Both the articles are intended to provide orthodontic practitioners some guidance on precautions they should take in the treatment of orthodontic patients in a post-lockdown era or at least until “at-home” or “in-office” testing, vaccines, or successful treatments for COVID-19 are developed. The first paper describes the sterilization protocols, clinical settings required, and instrumentations to protect ourselves as well as our patients. The second paper describes details associated with orthodontic biomechanics and procedures in order to avoid orthodontic emergencies in case of a further lockdown in the wake of a second wave of COVID-19.

As far as the measures and guidelines the authors have suggested, they hope that they will stimulate thought and provide a rationale for:
(a) Need for COVID-19 testing and guidelines for PPE needed in orthodontic practices for specific procedures;
(b) Comprehensive protocols for proper virtual-based consultations and appointments that assure adequate patient care;
(c) Understanding of a variety of possible changes in infection and office environment controls;
(d) Extensive knowledge of and skill with orthodontic mechanics with the intent of anticipating of their potential side effects along with offering more convenient and fail-safe methods to avoid emergencies in the near future.

It is undeniable that COVID-19 is here to stay for a long time, and so, it may forever change the way we practice orthodontics (and dentistry). While providing our treatments, we must heighten compassion for our patients and also enhance our sense of camaraderie and professionalism with the staff and our colleagues. With all of these factors in mind, we can get through this successfully, together.

Dr Adith and Dr Anand, our two UP dental clinical orthodontists, are putting into practice these new measures as described in the two papers, so that our own UP patients, staff and students can all benefit and ensure a safe working environment.

Biography: Ms. Nichola Heaton: English Lecturer

Nichola is 51 years of age and joined UP in October 2019. She is from Manchester in the North West of England.
She has lived in Cambodia for two years and her daughter lives here also. Nichola loves to travel and previously spent two years backpacking in Europe and South East Asia. She loves to read for pleasure and enjoys cooking.

Nichola’s previous career roles have included work as a Counsellor and as an advocate for victims of domestic abuse.

Biography: Mr. Sok Neoun: English Lecturer

Neoun joined U.P. in May 2019. He’s 36 years old and he’s from Massachusetts in the United States of America. He has taught English Language since 2016 in Cambodia.

Before he became an English Lecturer, he worked with several educational organizations. His hobbies include working out in the gym, basketball and reading, particularly fantasy literature. He also enjoys music and travel when he has free time.

Biography: Ms. Ry Rangsey: English Lecturer

Rangsey is from Phnom Penh. She graduated with Bachelor Degrees in English from the Institute of Foreign Languages (IFL), and in International Relations from the Royal University of Law and Economics (RULE). Joining as a full-time faculty member after a period of teaching at U.P. part-time here, she is excited to be a part of the U.P. family. She has been teaching English for 3 years now and really enjoys it. When she isn’t teaching, she contributes to producing music, with the hope of inspiring people to believe in and stand up for themselves, despite failures and disappointments that we all face sometimes in life.

Digital Learning Facilitator

I am ROEUNG Manith, and I am a Digital Learning Facilitator at UP. I finished my Bachelor’s degree in English at Phnom Penh Institute. All the way through my studies, from high school until I completed my college degree, I have taught myself how to use technology. I did so by undertaking lots of research using Google, Youtube, and many other online resources. Consequently, I learnt so many skills such as editing photographs and videos, fixing and upgrading PC, software or programming, mobile (rom, firmware, software), internet network…and many other information and communication technologies. After that, I worked in some companies as an IT specialist. I learnt so many things about modern and efficient working procedures from my experiences using IT.

After several years, I decided to apply to work at UP to use my technology knowledge to support students and lecturers. I succeeded in my application to work as a Digital Learning Facilitator. My main role is focused on the new Moodle online learning system at UP called UPOP – the University of Puthisastra Online Platform. I received three months of training from Ms. Linda Stannard, which really got me off to a great start! In the library, my colleague Sorn Sokha and I have provided UPOP skills to lecturers and students and we are there to support and guide them when they have problems in UPOP other UP learning systems.

In preparation for the temporary closure of UP’s campus, and the move to online teaching, the University chose to use Google Meet and Google Drive as teaching tools for lecturers who were not already using UPOP. I provided training in these applications for lecturers and, as a result, all lecturers can continue to deliver great teaching to their students as an online class. But simply teaching to students online is not enough, because lecturers also need to be able to assess the learning of their students, setting them assignments, exams or quizzes, and other assessment tasks. That is why Sokha and I, as Digital Learning Facilitators, plan to provide additional training for our lecturers and the team in the Learning and Teaching Office to use UPOP to deliver excellence in learning and teaching and develop objective and thorough assessments.

I am really happy to work at UP in this role because I value each new experience and learning opportunity that comes to me. I believe in the importance of lifelong learning, and I enjoy developing my own knowledge and skills while helping my lecturer colleagues and UP students.

ON-LINE LEARNING IN “ENGLISH FOR DENTISTRY” AT UP

UP dental students have the opportunity to study 90 hours of “English for Dentistry” in years 2 and 3, in addition to their normal English classes. The program is conducted by lecturers Dr Bich Sothea and Dr Ngeth Sokunmonyneath (both dentists) and includes a variety of activities which help to develop both dental
English competency and critical thinking skills. During the program students learn many things including:

• Getting practice at learning, pronouncing, and writing dental terminology used in many branches of dentistry.
• Communicating in English in various dental settings through role plays, making scripts, PPT slides, and voice and video recordings, and presenting these to the class.
• Delving into interesting dental journal articles and learning how scientific papers are structured.
• Learning how to paraphrase and summarize dental texts or/and journal articles using various techniques.
• Writing a reflective essay in English related to their own personal experiences of dentistry.

21st century teaching and learning methods have been gradually integrated into both the physical and online classroom situations. One of the most popular assessment tools we have introduced this year has been the use of KAHOOT on-line quizzes. These are not only a lot of fun but can generate scores for everyone in the class in a few short seconds. KAHOOT has been effective in motivating students to learn, and students have generally enjoyed this form of assessment, especially during this period of the online classes.

Introducing: Mr. Sorn Virak,

Research Methodology Course Coordinator

Mr Sorn Virak joined FY in December 2019 as a Research Methodology course coordinator. Virak handles technical operations of the Research Methodology course and provides pastoral care to students who need it.

Despite being junior in the field of Education, Virak demonstrates full potential, great and passionate commitment to making substantial contributions to making a positive change in students’ learning at UP. He has a broad educational background in Biochemical Technology from King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, Thailand, requiring him to do systematic reviews and scientific research. Virak thus has considerable experiences in science-based research.

Exhibiting enthusiasm and passion in research and learning something new, Virak has been nominated to join the Emerging Research Group at the university as an active group member, while he is reviewing a paper in relation to “Supplementation of Enzyme Endo-xylanase in chicken feeds’. He communicated that he is passionate about reviewing papers in scientific disciplines. Join Virak if you find this in common.

INTRODUCING: Dr. Chuon Channarena, MD, PhD,

Research Officer in the Faculty of Medicine

Dr. Chuon Channarena got his MD degree in 2014 and a PhD in Epidemiology, Infectious Diseases Control and Prevention at Hiroshima University, in Japan, in 2018.

His research has focused on viral hepatitis in the general population, in schoolchildren, and in pregnant women and their children in Cambodia. He has co-authored 11 publications in peer-reviewed international journals, has presented at international conferences, and has a h-index of 4 (Google Scholar and Scopus).

Dr. Channarena will supervise MD students’ dissertations and will contribute to research projects in the Faculty of Medicine.

CODING COMPETITION: REGISTRATION OPEN

UP ICT Department is supporting the organisation of the Cambodia CS Cup 2020 the first nationwide coding competition in Cambodia. Organised by Paragon International University, in partnership with the University of Puthisastra, Royal University of Phnom Penh (RUPP), Slash Foundry, Khmer Coders, and Mango Byte, this competition hosted 100% online on the hackerrank platform will be composed of 4 different levels with increasing difficulty over 4 weeks.

• 1st round: May 28th to May 31st
• 2nd round: June 04th to June 07th
• 3rd round: June 12th to June 14th
• 4th round: June 20th

Open to any High-school and University students interested in coding!
+100 students have already registered!
A group of +10 UP students is already preparing for this competition, join them before the deadline!

Registration deadline: 26/05/2020
How to register: https://cutt.ly/cscup2020
More information: email skamaroudin@puthisastra.edu.kh