Motivated to Do More

October 2013 by Sarah Dwyer with Rebecca Rhodes
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TAGS: Health Workers, Rebecca Rhodes, Sarah Dwyer, Third Global Forum on HRH, Uganda

Monica Watuvamu is already serving her community as a nurse and midwife at Kamuli Mission Hospital in Uganda. But she wants to do more.

“I’ve been actually going back to school,” she says, “to upgrade and improve my knowledge and skills.” The hospital is contributing to the costs, which is a big help. “I’ve been motivated, and I’m still motivated to help patients so that they get better.”

Working in the ultrasound unit, Monica recently discovered that a woman had a ruptured ectopic pregnancy, which she knew to be an extremely dangerous and life-threatening condition. Monica moved quickly to get the woman into surgery, and a disaster was averted. “The following day,” she recalls, “all these people [at the hospital] were really happy that I managed to find it out and that the patient was helped.”

Got a minute? Hear Monica’s story in her own words:

CapacityPlus’s Rebecca Rhodes interviewed Monica during a recent trip to Uganda, where she participated in the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) annual symposium and completed data collection at Kamuli Nurses and Midwives Training School for an assessment of bottlenecks and best buys to strengthen the school’s capacity to produce high-quality graduates. Rebecca also conducted interviews with staff of the Uganda Capacity Program, the Ministry of Health librarian and systems administrator, and Dr. Eddie Mukooyo to gather information on the progress, use, and impact of the Uganda Knowledge Management Portal, which she helped develop in 2008.

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