The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Sparkman Center for Global Health, the UAB School of Nursing, and the University of Iowa Widernet Project are working with the University of Zambia to improve access to health information resources for nursing students, faculty, and practitioners. Nurses in higher resource countries are fortunate to have access to many health training resources in libraries and over fast Internet connections. Many institutions in Zambia and other lower resource countries do not have this luxury. In response, we will provide Zambian institutions with webpages, PDF files, videos, e-books, curricula through an offline solution from the University of Iowa called the eGranary Digital Library to offer an alternative to access health information rather than Internet, which may be slow or expensive. These resources will also then be available to other settings via the eGranary Digital Library. The eGranary Project is supported by many global collaborators including the World Health Organization.  The Alabama/Iowa project will be providing "eGranaries", a LAN/Intranet based off-line repository of digital information to nurse training institutions in Zambia. It will target medical and nursing students, public health students, and other health care professionals.

Eventually, we plan to expand this project out to the provincial areas of Zambia as well as other countries in need of such resources. Other institutions who are interested in this resource can purchase the eGranary installation at a reasonable fee (contact the eGranary staff for pricing information.)

The nursing digital resource collection is being organized according to the main subject areas included in the Zambian nursing curriculum. Within each subject area, we are seeking seven types of resources: (a) web pages or web sites; (b) articles; (c) DVDs or videos; (d) case studies; (e) tutorials or curricula; (f) clinical practice guidelines; and (g) books.

Suggestions for resources in the topics listed below are welcome! Please send any suggestions via email to Heather Lee at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We are looking for clinical guidelines, case studies, tutorials, online textbooks, web sites, journals, and best practices that are more applicable to developing countries for the following categories:

• Community Health First Aid
• Infection Prevention
• Neonatology
• Embryology
• Sexually Transmitted Infections
• Surgery
  • Surgical Nursing- i.e. management of a patient with surgical conditions
  • Anesthesia
  • Orthopedic Surgery
  • Maxillofacial Surgery
• Malaria
  • Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment
• Tuberculosis
• Evidence Based Nursing/Practice
• Medicine and Medical Nursing
  • Respiratory System
  • Cardiology
  • Dermatology
  • Ear, Nose, and Throat
  • Gastrointestinal System
  • Metabolic and Endocrine System