“I so want to be a nurse that every day after school I try to go to a nearby clinic and serve as a volunteer. People say that I should be a doctor, but I want to be a nurse! A career in which I can change and save lives.”
I was listening to a young girl, Shahneela, at the Indus Hotel in Hyderabad, Sindh. She had come to receive her certificate for completing the course ‘Youth Development Programme - An Opportunity for Entering the Nursing Profession’, which is a partnership between the Government of Sindh’s Community Development Programme under the Planning and Development Department and the Aga Khan University’s School of Nursing and Midwifery.
At the end of the course, participants can sit for an admission test at any nursing school including AKU’s school that offers a four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BScN) programme.
An Intermediate student of the Government Girls Degree College in the impoverished Matiari district, Shahneela would travel 25 kilometres from her home in New Hala to Hyderabad every Sunday for three months to attend the course.
Shahneela’s father, Ayub Memon, who is a construction contractor by profession, has been fully supportive of his daughter’s endeavours.
“My children are free people, they can choose their own paths, and I am always there to support them,” he said.
But when I talked to some of the 126 other participants from Government Degree Colleges Nazareth, New Hala, Qasimabad, Shah Latif, Tando Muhammad Khan and Zubeda, they were not as lucky as Shahneela.
Most said that they had yet to convince their families about taking nursing as a profession. “The real challenge is to change the mindset that if you are smart, either you become a doctor or an engineer,” said Fareeda Jatoi of Zubeda.
But for Dr Keith Cash, Dean, AKU School of Nursing and Midwifery, nursing as a profession in Pakistan has changed and the teaching standards here are acceptable globally.
“Nursing offers exciting career opportunities as there is a worldwide shortage of graduate nurses, and modern and effective healthcare needs highly qualified nurses if it is to be successful,” he said.
According to him, nursing is no longer an underpaid, thankless job.
“For instance, just like students of medical colleges, graduates of our four-year nursing bachelors have to undertake a mandatory one-year internship and they are provided a stipend during this period,” Dr Cash explained. “At the conclusion of the five years, students are eligible to licensure as a Registered Nurse. This qualifies them to undertake nursing practice and education in healthcare nationally and internationally.”
For Shahneela, nurses are the heroes of healthcare. She is excited for the day when her dream to become a nurse will come true, and she will return to her hometown with a nursing degree.
