Bonventura Mtega always wanted to be an engineer. He undertook his O-level studies at a technical school, which further strengthened his resolve to study engineering. “However, when my uncle was taken ill in 2006 and had to be admitted to hospital, I saw male nurses attending to him. My interest in nursing was piqued,” Bonventura shares.
He befriended one of the nurses, who advised him to join a nursing college and later AKUSONAM. He graduated with a BScN in 2016. “I was impressed by how well my friend was doing, both professionally and socially. He was my inspiration to become a nurse. I joined the nursing profession, and I’m doing well in my career, financially and socially,” he says.
Bonventura is young and ambitious. He has worked at the Aga Khan Hospital for six years, during which he served in various roles including Bedside Nurse, Accident Management Nurse and Accident Management Nurse Manager. In his current position as the Nurse Manager in the Patient Safety department at the Aga Khan Hospital, he’s responsible for ensuring that all patient-related issues in the hospitals are resolved quickly and effectively. He’s also in charge of implementing measures to prevent patient mismanagement – such as giving the wrong treatment or operating on the wrong patient.
“Currently our hospital is undergoing accreditation by Joint Commission International, which is the most respected body in health safety accreditation. One of its standards is patient safety, and here at the hospital I’m the one to ensure that the people on the ground are complying with the international patient safety standards. It is a big responsibility,” he explains.
“My day-to-day work involves documentation, documentation auditing, tracking compliance and training other healthcare workers on international patient safety standards. For instance, when a patient needs to be moved to other health facilities, we have to make sure that the ambulances are well-equipped and have well-trained personnel to facilitate the transfer.”
Bonventura is also in charge of conducting clinical audits on international patient goals in all departments across the hospital. “For clinical audits, we conduct inspections, do interviews and analyse data according to international patient safety goals and send feedback to the concerned department so that in case of gaps, they know how they can improve.”
He feels that his studies at AKU-SONAM have served him well in his roles. “When I joined the Aga Khan University, I didn’t even know how to use simple computer programs such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. I had to undergo an information communication technology course, and now I’m confident in my computer skills. I have to do a lot of presentations, which is a skill I learnt at the University. Thanks to its focus on equipping students with analytical skills, I can competently analyse data – which is a key part of my job.”
His job is not without challenges. One of them is when the other auditors on the ground fail to submit their data to him in a timely manner. “I have to get data from them and analyse it before forwarding it to the institutional dashboard. Delays on the part of other auditors mean the entire process is delayed. I have noticed that most delays happen during weekends and public holidays, when there isn’t strict supervision. To resolve this, we’re planning to sit with the healthcare workers and educate them on the importance of consistency and having the right attitude.”
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.
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