There is a Chinese proverb that says, “The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.” For many, the prospect of attaining a PhD may seem daunting, but the few that choose that path tackle the PhD ‘mountain’ bit by bit until they make it to the peak.
Two faculty members of the School of Nursing and Midwifery (SONAM) in East Africa: Jane Kabo in Kenya, and Victor Mathias in Tanzania, continue to make important steps on their scholarly journey. While Kabo approaches the end of her PhD at the University of South Africa, Mathias recently completed his first viva at the University of Stellenbosch.
Despite having contrasting topics for their doctorates with Ms Kabo dealing with life at its earliest, while Mr Mathias tackles life’s sunset stages, both faced similar challenges during their research.
Ms Kabo mentioned that balancing work, family needs and PhD study became a juggling act for her. She went on to add that, “Often times you have to work round the clock and put in more hours, even as you constantly fight the physical and mental fatigue that lingers on at the end of each day. I have been able to overcome this by planning ahead and never committing myself to everyone and everything. Peer group support has also been very helpful; I keep learning with others as I share with them. The journey has been challenging and fulfilling in equal measure.”
Mr Mathias also confessed that he had to restructure his order of priorities to cope with and succeed at his PhD study. He credits fully dedicating himself to this endeavour as part of the reason for his successful first year as a PhD candidate.
As a trained midwife, Kabo spoke about the differences she encountered while pursuing her PhD: “I studied for my master's in Midwifery and Obstetric Nursing at the University of Nairobi, which was a full-time programme. The academic supervisors were able to dedicate more teaching time to their supervision role. In contrast, the doctoral programme has been executed through distance learning with limited face-to-face interactions with supervisors. We communicated through emails, which sometimes made feedback take longer.
“At PhD level, one is expected to do more work with minimal academic supervision, as compared with a master’s programme," Kabo said. "The doctoral programme has also been more demanding in terms of the required level of rigour.
"A PhD candidate is expected to play an active role in the creation and interpretation of new knowledge, while demonstrating exquisite understanding of applicable techniques for research and advanced academic enquiry. The student is also expected to continuously develop transferable research skills, such as critical reasoning, problem-solving, and in-depth analysis. PhD study requires a more intense commitment in terms of work discipline and intellectual energy. It is a long undertaking that runs for numerous years for one to effectively earn a PhD. A PhD candidate is also required to exercise a high degree of perseverance as compared with a student who is under the master’s programme.”
She mentioned that the support accorded to her by SONAM's Dean, and Academic Head in Nairobi, who allowed her one day a week for research was immensely helpful in ensuring she remained on track.
Mathias termed his first viva as “thought-provoking” and shared that it was challenging to make a presentation in front of the panel. Nonetheless, he said the secret to his success was good preparation, having a supportive supervisor, confidence and taking ownership of his work.
Kabo’s study High Impact, Low Cost Interventions to Enhance the Outcome of Pre-term Babies in Kilifi County sought to establish the level of implementation of low-cost interventions, while highlighting barriers and enablers to midwives in implementing quality packages of interventions for preterm babies. “Findings from this study have great potential to leverage the design of instructional strategies that will facilitate effective implementation of appropriate guidelines so as to improve health outcomes of preterm babies,” she added.
Mathias, selected his topic Developing Health Standards for Homes for the Elderly in Tanzania because he had observed that older adults in Tanzania missed care from their relatives, but that lack of care was also experienced even when they went into homes for older adults. He said: “For that reason I planned a study [on how to] to develop quality health standards which can be used as guidance on how to provide quality care to that group.”
Both candidates said that PhD study had opened them up to a different experience, and this has in turn increased their confidence in their work. “This engagement would not only be beneficial to me as a candidate, but would also contribute to the wellbeing of SONAM as an institution. The midwifery profession within the country will also benefit from my doctoral study, if well undertaken,” said Kabo.
Mathias said he fully dedicated himself to this endeavour as part of the reason for his successful first year as a PhD candidate. “Meeting [the] deadline of every task given by the supervisor promoted good relations among us and was one of the supporting factors for completing the first year successfully.”