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Dean’s
Communiqué
July 2018 | Edition 03
THE
AGA KHAN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL
OF NURSING AND MIDWIFERY
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Dear Colleagues,
I am thoroughly thrilled to share this
particular communiqué
edition with you all that speaks volumes about
the School’s tremendous growth in terms of new academic, research and
clinical initiatives as well as strategic partnerships. It has been an
amazing year for us so far and the future looks even more promising. We
understand that for a sustainable model, it is very important that our
leaders driving the force are competent and focused, and we have been doing
just that; strengthening and building on their competencies. This edition
covers the many developments that have happened at the School in the past few
months. Please read on.
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SONAM researchers study mental health of
pregnant women
Sharifa Lalani and Kiran Shaikh have been
awarded Canadian Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Scholarships. The two
researchers will be working closely with Dr Shahirose Premji and Dr Nicole
Letourneau of the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Nursing in Canada to
study the relationship between pregnancy-related anxiety and epigenetics and
its effect on preterm births in Pakistan.
Dr Premji also recently visited the School
last month and met with the researchers and medical consultants to discuss
psychiatric referrals and future plans for research expansion.
Read
More >>
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Eyeing collaboration with the Universidade
Católica Portuguesa
Last six months saw a couple of visits from the Portuguese
government officials, healthcare professionals as well as from the leadership
of Universidade
Católica Portuguesa to AKU.
Our faculty had a very fruitful session with the delegation
where they were briefed about our teaching, learning and undergraduate
programmes, research initiatives, clinical practice as well as our outreach
activities.
The recent development in the establishment of a formal
seat of Imamate in Portugal has opened up myriad collaboration opportunities
for the entity as well as for the University on the whole. The School’s
outreach unit is devising plans on building a strategic partnership with the
University.
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Faculty gets trained on Virtual Learning Environment
In May, as many as 60 faculty members from the School were
trained on Virtual Learning Environment to enable them to have an online
presence of their respective courses in line with the University’s vision.
The same training sessions were recently conducted for our colleagues in East
Africa as well with the aim of expanding our joint education activities and
running joint courses in the future.
I would like to congratulate our Blending Learning team for
running these successful workshops in both the regions.
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IND and IDM 2018 celebrations
This year, International Nurses Day and International Day
of the Midwife was celebrated with much fervour as workshops, conference and
walk were organised through the first week of May to recognize and stress on
the expanding role of nurses and midwives as leaders in healthcare. SONAM’s
Dr Yasmin Amarsi was also conferred with a lifetime achievement award
during the event.
I was invited to the Central Java International Nursing
Conference hosted by the Indonesian National Nurse Association where I spoke
on “Nursing intervention to promote public health in Pakistan based on
cultural diversity”. It was a great opportunity to connect with various
nursing schools in Semarang, Indonesia and to explore the dynamics of their
work. Our Assistant Dean Khairulnissa Ajani also had an opportunity to be the
chief guest of the event at Murshid School of Nursing and Midwifery where
they commemorated the day.
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Ms Khairulnissa Ajani’s take on the
expanding role of a nurse
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My message to the practicing
nurses and midwives of Pakistan
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Message from Dr Jacqueline
Maria Dias to the aspiring nurse students
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Taking a trip down memory lane and
remembering our students from 30 years ago
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Learning about SONAM’s impact in Pakistan in
producing nurse leaders & introducing new degrees
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An AKUH head nurse talks about his experiences as leading a team of
nurses at the NICU
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SONAM leads Reproductive and Sexual Health
Consortium
Dr Tazeen S. Ali and her team successfully launched the
Reproductive and Sexual Health Consortium that comprises members of different
departments of AKUH and key Pakistan NGOs, and is supported by CoE WCH and
members of the government. The research team has worked tirelessly to bring
together this team of competent people from across Pakistan who would be
jointly working to study and address sexual and reproductive issues in
Pakistan and seek funding for vital research projects.
A kick-off event took place at the University in April
where Provost Carl Amrhein acknowledged the significance and potential of
this Consortium.
Read More >>
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Promoting diversified clinical exposure
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Nurse interns in Gilgit
I am particularly happy to share with you that four of our
nurse interns are currently doing their 12-week clinical placement at the
Gilgit Medical Centre. It is an important step towards diversifying the
clinical exposure for our future nurse leaders in clinical practice. This is
in line with our efforts to prepare our students adequately for increasing
patient complexity as they work in a different clinical setup. The faculty
plans to continue this in future.
I am equally thrilled to share another good news in this
regard. The School has submitted a concept note to the University’s Academic
Council that elaborates on expanding its footprint in Pakistan by opening a
new
nursing and midwifery school in Gilgit. The plan shared
with the Council aims for the School to begin its operations with an intake
of students in 2021 subject to approvals.
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Community placement opportunity in Sindh
In June, I had a chance to travel to interior Sindh along
with our colleagues from the School and Family Medicine. We visited the Aga
Khan Health Services medical centre in Mir Pur Sakro and aimed to explore the
facility as a clinical and community placement opportunity for our students
and faculty members and look forward to the support of AKHSP and CHS to carry
out this initiative.
We have collectively proposed Sakro district, Dow
University and Baldia Town as new placements for clinical experience, faculty
practice, community service and research.
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Advocating leadership in midwifery: One step at a time
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The School’s Maternal, Neonatal and Child
Health stream had been working on preparing a detailed proposal on the shared
care model as well as the midwifery-led model that would allow midwives to
practice independently. The initiative, which is also supported by the
Obstetrics Service Line, is about to be presented to the credentialing
committee of AKUH. I am convinced that together we would succeed in adopting
globally recommended transformational leadership style in midwifery and
neonatal care.
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Our faculty Shahnaz Shahid spoke
wonderfully on this theme on Samaa
TV’s live morning show and stressed on how
midwives are preparing themselves to lead and influence the healthcare
environment and their individual communities.
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I
am delighted to have had Professor Grace Edwards, our very own faculty and
expert midwife from East Africa, visit us in March. She conducted an
outstanding session on the shared care model and hands-on workshops for our
Post RM BScM students for clinical competency building.
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I am also deeply grateful to Dr Shershah
Syed of Koohi Goth Hospital who, along with his team, facilitated midwifery
updates for our faculty midwives as well as offered his facility to our
students to gain valuable midwifery exposure. The model hospital is a
purpose-built facility that allows midwives to be an integral part of the
healthcare team.
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Allied Health School: SONAM working on
preliminary feasibility evaluation
In June, I and my colleague Lubna Ghazal presented our
ideas on the Allied Health School at the Aga Khan Health Service Leadership
Conference held in Mombassa. The ideas were very well received and we see a
strong interest in the development of a suite of integrative,
interdisciplinary courses at the BS level.
Our faculty Samina Vertejee is leading the project and she,
along with her team, is carrying out a preliminary evaluation of the dynamics
of this degree programme. We are hoping to work on this project with various
other departments at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan as well as in East
Africa.
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Faculty writes on “Aging in Pakistan”
Samina Vertejee has recently contributed in the June–July
2018 bulletin by Active Aging Consortium Asia Pacific. Ms Vertejee is also
heading SONAM’s Geriatric and Gerontology clinical stream.
She shares stories of a number of elderly individuals who
have been mistreated by their families and society.
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PhD and Postdoc – Keep them coming!
Our first postdoc, Dr Tazeen S. Ali has recently come back
from her visit to Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, where she was pursuing her postdoctoral
programme in Equity and Policy
Development. She has also done some impressive work with colleagues in
nursing and midwifery to forge new links for doctoral studies and we can’t
wait to building more future partnerships and collaborations.
Another faculty member Shireen Shehzad has been accepted to
Ghent University
in Belgium to pursue her PhD on perinatal depression. We hope that she is the
first of many SONAM faculty members to study and work with this great
university.
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We
would be happy to receive your comments and feedback. Please write to us at sonam.pk@aku.edu
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