In a one-of-a-kind student-led national research symposium, the Nursing SPIRIT ’22 – Students’ Perspectives In Research & Innovation Trends, at the Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery, AKU-SONAM, 75 students and graduates from more than ten nursing schools across the country presented their healthcare research projects through oral and poster presentations.
The presentations explored healthcare issues under the three larger themes of non-communicable diseases, maternal, newborn and child health, and nursing education, with plenary talks in each category respectively by Dr Rubina Barolia, assistant dean, clinical practice, AKU-SONAM; Dr Zohra Lassi, senior research fellow at the Adelaide University, Australia; and Dr Gulzar Malik, director academic and international programs, La Trobe University, Australia.
“Platforms as such are fundamental, but unfortunately not very common locally for our students to network with other healthcare researchers, showcase their work and disseminate important findings, while learning from those senior in the field,” said Dr Tazeen Saeed Ali, associate dean, research and innovation, AKU-SONAM in her talk at the event.
Dr Laila Ladak, assistant dean, graduate programs at AKU-SONAM and Chair faculty also emphasized on the importance of such conferences. “Young students and novice researchers need a push in the right direction by seniors like ourselves in the field. Events like these are bound to encourage nurses to pursue research professionally and set a momentum for evidence-based findings on local healthcare issues,” she remarked.
Special remarks at the event were made by Dr Carl Amrhein, Provost, Academic, AKU and Dr Salim Virani, Vice Provost for Research, AKU, while Dr Michelle Upvall, Director of PhD Nursing programs at the Barry University, USA, gave the keynote address. All of them encouraged the students to continue this spirit and aim for even higher milestones in research.
“Don’t leave a paper orphan – every paper should have a home! Rejections from research journals often leave us as researchers demotivated but it is very important to stay positive and persistent,” emphasized Dr Virani regarding the importance of publishing research for greater impact.
“It is truly exciting to see how far nursing has come in Pakistan from an apprenticeship model to higher education in the 1980s and 90s, to our young students today actively creating high-impact, contextualised research which is a huge step forward for the advancement of nursing as a profession in Pakistan,” said Dr Rozina Karmaliani, dean, AKU-SONAM.
The event was attended by over 600 participants in-person and online, with research projects from students of AKU, Dow University of Health Sciences, Ziauddin University, Iqra University, the Jinnah Medical University Institute of Nursing in Karachi, Shifa Tameer-e-Millat University, Islamabad and the Oriental Institute of Health & Allied Sciences, Mardan.
The Nursing SPIRIT ’22 was organised by graduate students of AKU led by the Office of Graduate Programs and the Office of Research and Innovation, AKU-SONAM, and is planned to be held annually.