Dr. Tushabe: Why I chose a career in pediatrics

By Michael Ainomugisha

At Mulago National Referral Hospital in Kampala, Dr Elizabeth Tushabe takes a brief silence before beginning her work. Sometimes it is a quiet prayer. Sometimes it is a steadying breath. But it is always intentional. For her, medicine has never been only about diagnosing illness or prescribing treatment. It is always about people, faith and the responsibility to care for life in its most vulnerable moments.

“Medicine exposes you to suffering at very close range. If you do not have a grounding that reminds you that patients are human beings and not just cases, it becomes easy to get complacent,” she reflects.

Tushabe is a medical doctor and a graduate of the Uganda Christian University Kampala Campus School of Medicine, class of 2023. She is currently pursuing a Master’s in Pediatrics and Child Health at Makerere University, as well as training at Mulago Hospital. 

She is the second of four children and the first girl among them. Raised by parents who were intentional about grounding their home in Christian values, practicing faith was something lived daily. 

She grew up with faith-based conversations as a normal routine and remembers attending Sunday school and learning about Christ from an early age. 

“I gave my life to Christ when I was in Primary Six. From that point, my faith was not separate from who I was. It became part of my identity,” she recalls. 

As a child, Tushabe describes herself as curious and observant. She paid close attention to how people lived, how her parents lived, how teachers taught, and how her siblings learned. 

“I always watched people and tried to learn from my environment.” 

She also loved helping. Whether it was assisting at home or supporting her siblings, she found joy in being useful. “I enjoyed doing house chores. I enjoyed being responsible,” she says. 

At the time, her childhood felt ordinary. But in hindsight, the foundations for her calling were being laid.

Her early education began at Buganda Road Primary School before St Mary’s Secondary School, Kitende, for her secondary education. Like many young people, her sense of vocation developed gradually. 

“For a long time, I wanted to be a teacher because I loved how my teachers helped us. Helping people understand things felt meaningful to me,” she says. 

The shift toward medicine came later, shaped by both aptitude and encouragement. Tushabe excelled in biology and chemistry, consistently ranking among the top students in her class. Her father noticed her strengths before she could. 

“Since I was good at Biology and Chemistry, my dad told me, ‘You know you can be a doctor.’” 

By Tushabe’s second year of secondary school, the idea of medicine had taken root. 

Elizabeth Tushabe at her graduation in 2023, marking the completion of her medical training at Uganda Christian University.

Choosing where to study medicine was not a decision she took lightly. “I chose UCU because of its Christian foundation. As a medical doctor, I believe you need more than skills. You need compassion, humility and integrity,” she explains. 

UCU’s School of Medicine was still young when she joined, and she admits the uncertainty was real. Tushabe was in the class of the pioneer students, but she joined the cohort in year three. Her first two years of medicine were studied elsewhere.

“When something is starting, it is never perfect; I was scared. I wondered whether the program would meet the standards doctors are supposed to have,” she says. 

But those fears slowly gave way to confidence. One of the program’s greatest strengths, she says, was its size.

“We were not too many. That meant we had close interaction with our lecturers. They knew us personally,” she explains.

Mentorship was intentional and accessible. Over time, the concerns she had were addressed through consistent support rather than promises.

Her first real encounter with patients came in her third year during ward rotations. She remembers the excitement vividly. “At the time, she was already convinced that internal medicine was her calling.

However, that certainty was shaken early on. During one of her first ward experiences, a patient assigned to a colleague student passed away. The loss was deeply unsettling. “I felt really bad,” she recalls. “I started asking myself if I really wanted to continue with this profession.”

But such was the emotional weight of a career in medicine. In that moment, she turned to prayer. “I asked God to give me strength and to help me learn from such losses instead of running away from them.”

“From then on, I treated medicine more seriously and every encounter with a patient mattered.”

Several lecturers shaped her during this formative period. In internal medicine, Dr Muyanja David stood out for his teaching approach.

“He treated every student as if they were already doctors. He wanted you to take responsibility for patient care, not just to observe,” she says. 

Under his mentorship, she briefly considered becoming a physician. That, however, changed when she had a chance to work in the pediatric ward.

She speaks warmly of the pediatric team, including Dr Twalib Aliku, Prof Charles Karamagi, Dr Rhoda Nakiriba Mayega and Dr Phillip Kasirye, who she says modelled compassion alongside competence.

“Empathy is required in pediatrics because as you are treating the child, you’re also thinking about the parents. I realized that pediatrics encompasses everything medicine should be,” she says. 

Upon her graduation from UCU in 2023, Tushabe was placed at Kawempe National Referral Hospital for her internship. “Using the skills I got from UCU, I was able to perform very well,” she says. 

By the end of her internship, she was recognized as the best intern doctor at the facility.

A supervising doctor later invited her to join a private medical center. However, she chose to pause employment and focus fully on postgraduate studies.

Today, she trains at Mulago National Referral Hospital, where learning is inseparable from patient care. “In postgraduate training, we learn by treating patients,” she explains.

Tushabe credits UCU with preparing her not only academically, but also spiritually and emotionally. 

“UCU taught me resilience, and in medicine, you will face situations where patients do not improve. Without resilience, you can give up.”

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