From a young age, Robby Moses Marwa knew she was destined to be in the medical field, just like many of her family members. “There are several doctors and nurses in my family. When I was growing up, one of my aunts was training to be a nurse at Bugando School of Nursing. She would visit with us on weekends, and we’d escort her back to the college in the evenings. She made a huge impression on me, and I decided to become a nurse just like her,” she recalls.
She joined Muhimbili School of Nursing after completing her high school education and in 2003 was employed as an Assistant Nursing Officer at Pwani Referral Hospital. Desiring to advance her career, she enrolled for a BScN at AKU-SONAM in 2010 and graduated in 2014. Since then, her nursing career has grown – she is now the Assistant Head of Nursing and Midwifery Services at Tumbi Referral Regional Hospital.
She excitedly talks about her work, which she says brings meaning to her life. “I assist the Head of Nursing in the hospital; he might assign me duties or appoint me to represent him. Other than that, it’s my everyday responsibility to ensure the nursing operations in the hospital run smoothly, that every patient is attended to by nurses, the hospital remains clean and infection prevention measures are adhered to. As a leader, I have to understand the relationships between nurses and doctors, other health service providers and patients. I listen to nurses’ queries and challenges and help them find solutions, or forward the issues to the management,” she says.
Robby has found the training from AKU-SONAM to be highly beneficial to her work. “We did a lot of presentations, were equipped with computer skills and were even linked with students from other countries to be able to learn from each other. Critical thinking skills were especially emphasized. I remember that we used to create a clinical concept map. It seemed like plenty of work at the time, but now I see why it was important to learn. I have seen the importance of a patient care plan and nursing diagnosis,” she explains.
One of her proudest achievements is being part of a project on patient safety that Tumbi Hospital worked on in collaboration with Germany. “The project had various parts such as patient identification, ward/room identification, drug safety, infection prevention and control... and so on. I went to Germany to present my part of the project. I was able to do this confidently because of my training at the Aga Khan University.”
Robby was one of the beneficiaries of Johnson & Johnson scholarships. “The scholarship covered a huge part of the school fees, leaving the beneficiaries to pay only a small part. Without worrying about finances, I could focus on balancing work and studies.”
Robby is doing her part in promoting good nursing standards in her community. She hopes that by the time she retires she will have made a significant contribution in educating other nurses on these standards and implementing them.
Nurses and Midwives - Leaders in Healthcare in East Africa story series reflect the depth and diversity of the nursing and midwifery profession in East Africa.
Finding, capturing and documenting these stories was a collective effort of many individuals and institutions. At the very beginning were the investments made by the Johnson & Johnson Corporate Citizenship Trust, the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KFW), the Lund Family and Rotary International that brought the nursing and midwifery training programme to life.
These partners provided scholarships, support for programme development and faculty investments that were pivotal in enabling the Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery (AKU-SONAM) to recruit a diverse set of students and build innovative, pragmatic academic programmes.
We hope that these stories will continue to inspire, challenge and show the power of nurses and midwives for years to come.
Please contact us for general information or additional information on our programs and activities.