(NOTE: In the fall of 2018, Brendah Ndagire, UCU Partners’ Communications Associate, came on the Uganda Christian University Mukono campus to interview some UCU Partners scholarship recipients. For a 10-day period, UCU Partners features a summary of their feedback. To support students like these, contact Mark Bartels, executive director, UCU Partners, at m.t.bartels@ugandapartners.org or donate directly at: https://www.ugandapartners.org/donate/)
Name: Uwimbabazi Sarah
Program: Bachelor of Nursing Science
How has the scholarship helped you in your course of study? The scholarship covers my fees, and I attend classes with no worries. This has helped me to perform better in classes.
How would do you want to use your degree and why? I will go back to my hospital and deliver holistic nursing care to the people within and outside the hospital with interest in maternal and child health for the betterment of our community and nation.
What do you want to say to your sponsor? I want to express to her how much I am grateful. Thank you for making me who I am today.
Name: Murezi Mereth
Program: Master of Nursing Science
How has the scholarship helped you in your course of study? I have had timely access to university services including lecture rooms and library. And I have been able to focus on my academic work without interruptions.
How would do you want to use your degree and why? I want to engage in teaching activities so as to strengthen the nursing profession further. Secondly, I want to become an education specialist and largely engage in policy formulation.
What do you want to say to your sponsor? I am very thankful for his/her support and devotion in seeing progress in the academic arena in Uganda.
Name: Monday Edson
Program: Master of Nursing Science
How has the scholarship helped you in your course of study? It has relieved me a lot. I have been able to attend all my classes without worries, and this has improved my concentration in class. I love my program and I have been able to take of my family alongside studying.
How would do you want to use your degree and why? I want to be a university lecturer and a researcher in the nursing field.
What do you want to say to your sponsor? Thank you so much!
Robert Kamugisha, center, with two staff members at the Uganda Nursing School (UCU Partners photo)
By Patty Huston-Holm
“This will hurt,” the nurse said, preparing to inject a vaccination into the arm of the six-year-old boy. “But it will help you be protected for the rest of your life.”
That boy was Robert Kamugisha, now age 37 and one of the leaders of a nursing school located 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the western Uganda area where he grew up and received that immunization. He has a small injection scar with a memory of how that experience propelled him to his career in medicine.
“Her words made me feel like a part of this at that very young age,” he recalled.
Signage of nursing school in the western Uganda area of Bwindi (UCU Partners Photo)
Robert is the academic registrar at the Uganda Nursing School (Bwindi), where students can get a certificate after about 2.5 years and a diploma in about 3 years. Uganda Christian University (UCU) provides the accreditation for the school. UCU’s School of Nursing relationship with the new school in Bwindi is one example of how the university reaches under-served areas.
While westerners know Bwindi best for gorilla trekking in the Impenetrable Forest, East Africans recognize the area’s rural poverty. Behind what most tourists see is the economically and educationally poor Batwa (pigmy) tribe. The Kellerman Foundation, based in Texas, has been instrumental in serving needs of this population.
“Infant mortality is a problem here,” Robert said. That’s the topic of his soon-to-be finished master’s dissertation with UCU, where he received his Bachelor of Science in Nursing in 2013. He got that degree with the assistance of a scholarship from the Uganda Christian University Partners organization.
From practicing nurse to oversight for nurses at Bwindi Community Hospital, Robert’s career climb accelerated to a leadership position for a new school when two gorilla trekkers from the United States agreed to fund the building construction in 2013. Rotary International, through the Rotary Club of Reno, Nevada (USA), and the Rotary Club of Kihihi, Uganda, furnished the school.
The first class of 36 graduated in March of 2017. Today, there are nearly 300 Uganda, Kenya and Rwanda students studying at the Bwindi facility.
Taking care of people, including nursing students, is second nature to Robert. As the first born of five children, he grew up with the family responsibility for his younger brother and three younger sisters with little financial support for himself.
Robert and his wife, Uwimbabazi Sarah, have two children.A woman from Israel sponsors Sarah’s studies at UCU through UCU Partners.
“At some point, I want to be in a position where I can support someone other than my own family,” Robert said. “Ugandans can and should give back that way.”
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If you are interested in supporting students who are making a difference in Uganda such as UCU Partners Scholarship Recipient Robert Kamugisha is, contact Uganda Partners’ Executive Director Mark Bartels at mtbartels@gmail.com.
Elizabeth Ekong and Faith Sebuliba at Uganda Christian University (UgandaPartners Photo)
By Brendah Ndagire
In 2006, Elizabeth Ekong and Faith Sebuliba were part of the pioneer group of students enrolled in the Nursing Program at Uganda Christian University (UCU). A dozen years later, they are close to leading it.
When they began, they did not think about the prospect of being considered the future leaders of UCU’s Nursing Program. Once they graduated with bachelor degrees in 2008, they got employed and started working as tutorial assistants for new students. As teaching assistants, they were intentionally mentored by the current founders and heads of UCU’s Nursing Department, Mrs. Jemimah Mutabaazi; and Dr. Karen Drake of Bethel University in Minnesota, USA. The mentorship process is geared towards sustaining the program leadership by putting it in the hands of Ugandans.
UCU nursing program growth UCU nursing has deepened from certificates, diplomas and bachelor degrees to offerings at the post-graduate (PG) level. The first PG program leads to a Master of Nursing Science. Other graduate degree programs are planned in midwifery, women’s health, and psychiatry as these relate to nursing.
As trailblazers, Faith and Elizabeth graduated with their Master’s in Nursing Science in 2011. They were appointed lecturers, teaching undergraduate students in nursing classes such as foundations of nursing, medical surgical, anatomy, physiology, research, and midwifery. With Mrs. Mutabaazi, they were among only four full-time lecturers in all nursing classes for a long time. In their full-time lecturer roles, “we were expected to be an all-round teachers,” Elizabeth said. Today, they still work as lecturers as well as being online PhD students of nursing through Texila American University.
Faith with some of her students, Magdalene Kokor (right) and Kemigisha Misk (left) – (Uganda Partners Photo)
What makes UCU’s Nursing Program different from other programs in other universities in Uganda is that the Bachelor of Nursing curricula at UCU includes foundation courses like world views, Christian living (New and Old Testament), Christian ethics and others that ground students in reflecting and managing their future clients as individuals that deserve the best of care.
“To me, as a nurse, it is really important to strengthen my professional as well as my Christian ethics,” Elizabeth said. “As a Christian it is important to know what kind of professional ethics I am going to portray as I practice nursing.”
“All we are and what we do is the result of our faith. It is not all about being like any other nurse or teacher, but being a Christian nurse and teacher begins with serving the Author and Giver of this life we have, and inviting others to be part of that service in our communities.” Faith Sebuliba
Passion to serve Reflecting on lessons learned as lecturers, Elizabeth and Faith both remember how they started their passion and inspiration for teaching and becoming nurses.
Faith remembers the time when she was a 6-year-old child and damaged her eardrum. She had accidentally put a stick in her ear. While she was at the hospital, she loved the nurses who took care of her in the entire healing process.
In earlier years, teaching wasn’t Elizabeth’s passion. “I had been a student and saw how teachers treated students, and I remembered that when I finished my first diploma in midwifery, I never wanted to be a teacher. Over time, I learned that I can be a teacher with a difference. This means valuing students and the work we are doing. And that’s what I wanted to do as a nursing teacher.”
Speaking about the challenges facing UCU’s Nursing Program, they have seen the main obstacles of being under-staffed due to limited funding and lower student enrolment. The program currently has some part-time staff and “the challenge with that is we are unable to stretch part-time staff. They only give you the time they have available. Our hope is that we are able to hire and have full-time lecturers in the future,” Faith said.
Regarding low student enrolment, since the program is full-time, many prospective candidates are not able to apply for full-time classes. “Many of them are already working and cannot afford to hold their work and study full-time. The enrolment numbers have been going down over the years, so our responsibility is to make sure that these number start increasing,” added Faith.
Elizabeth in class with her student Esther Gidongo. (UgandaPartners Photo)
The main question they ask themselves is how they can keep providing good quality education and also attract a good number of students in the nursing program. In future, they are looking at revising the nursing curriculum, modifying their teaching methods to include more dialogue, and the possibility of having both online and classes on campus for undergraduate students.
“We (also) intend to increase work-based learning so as to create an impact on the employability of our graduates, and strengthen employability skills for professional nurses,” Elizabeth said.
Partnerships are key Partnerships are one way of increasing the number of students coming through the bachelor and master degree pipeline. Two years ago, partnerships were forged with Bwindi and Kagando Schools of Nursing, which both offer Diplomas in Nursing. The two women intend to maintain this partnership, with the hope that if diploma graduates are interested in getting their BA in nursing, they would come to UCU.
They also hope to continue the tradition of grooming other students. And part of doing this is having an inclusive education. According to Faith, “students have different learning needs. Our responsibility is to come down to the level of students, and make sure that every student is included in the conversation we are having on a particular subject.” Being humble as a teacher also is important. Teachers can learn from students.
Success viewpoints What does success look from the two mentored nurse perspectives?
For Elizabeth, success is “when students graduate and excel in every sphere of their lives. I understand that teaching is not about me, but about what kind of graduates we put out in our communities. What makes me happy is when I see a nursing graduate having a job… [and] when our graduates are confident in what they are doing in the field.”
For Faith: “We want to see as many people come to the program and when they go out there, they are relevant to the communities they are serving.”
They are excited about the future of nursing in Uganda. According to Faith, nursing in Uganda was previously the career for someone who couldn’t qualify for university learning.
“People have looked at nursing as some kind of diversion in career,” Elizabeth said. “If you failed in this field, you can be a nurse. This led to so many people in Uganda to disrespect the field and the nurses themselves.”
Having PhD graduates within Uganda’s nursing field would enhance the profession’s credibility. “The more qualified nursing graduates are, the more chances there are that Uganda’s healthcare system is going to improve,” Faith said.
This is pertinent to their responsibility as nurses and lecturers themselves, to change the perception of nursing and nurses at UCU and in Uganda.
“We want to let people know that the nursing field is for academicians and professionals who want to give quality nursing services to the communities in Uganda,” said Elizabeth.
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The Nursing Department at UCU is grateful for the special partnership they have with Bethel University. And these two women are specifically thankful to God, Uganda Partners’ support, and UCU leadership for investing in their growth as lecturers. If you are interested in supporting UCU’s Nursing Department or its students, contact the Uganda Partners’ Executive Director, Mark Bartels, at mtbartels@gmail.com.
Name: Uwimbabazi Sarah
Name: Murezi Mereth
Name: Monday Edson
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