Narrator Since the nineteen fifties
thousands of South Asian leaders have seized the opportunity to further their
knowledge at Australian universities through prestigious Australia awards
scholarships their new knowledge and skills are
improving countless lives in their home countries
Muna I love nursing ... and I love knowledge also
... and I want to develop that in my students
Narrator Meet Fathimath. When she returned from her
masters studies at Monash University under an Australia Awards scholarship, she became
instrumental in setting-up the Maldives' first ever bachelor of nursing course.
Muna Through the bachelor of nursing programme
we are hoping that we can provide a higher quality of nursing care throughout the different
areas in Maldives, not only here in Male, but in the Atolls.
Huna My home island is Hinnavar ... there we have
lots of houses, few trees and lots of people ...
Huna We have one health centre where we can get
vaccinations ...
Huna If an emergency case comes, for example a
person with shortness of breath or with pain in the chest ... they can take ECG or they
can provide oxygen supplies and they refer the patient immediately to the nearest hospital.
Huna If the patient or anyone from our island has
to travel to other islands they have to take boat ... It takes about 7-8 hours by boat
to reach Male and most of the time they travel at night.
Huna ... My own grandfather was a bedridden patient
and he was bedridden for about two years and he was taken care of by my mother and father.
I wonder always, why is he bedridden, why can't he walk and how can he be treated
... First of all he was not able to walk so he was lying on the bed, but he can take food
orally but later on he was not able to take food and he was given only liquid directly,
so I was wondering what will be done if we were abroad I mean if we were in Male or some
other places where we get good facilities. What will be the nursing care, what will be
the care given by the professionals so I wanted to know how to give care to the bedridden
patients, how to give care to the geriatric patients. That was my inspiration for me to
become a nurse. 13:00.
Muna During my masters programme in Australia ... I
got knowledge regarding different instructional techniques and different assessments we can
do for assessing students, and also how to build that relationship between my students
and me In our culture that relationship can be very
distant than in other western, Australian cultures so from there I learnt how important
it is to have a good friendly relationship with the students 14:53.
Narrator Drawing on what she learned and the Bachelor
of Nursing curriculum used by Monash University, Fathimath worked with her lectures and colleagues
to draft the Maldives' first such course. This means that young people Huna can now
study a higher level of nursing without the expense and difficulties of going abroad.
Muna The role of bachelor nurses in improving health
care will be I believe mainly in health promotion and health prevention area.
Muna They will have increased knowledge of health
education assessment so when they go and assess patients they should be able to identify those
who will need a higher level of care so they can be referred earlier instead of waiting
until the last moment.
Huna I would go back to my island and apply this
knowledge I have learned here, like giving awareness to the geriatric patient's relatives
so that they can stay at home and give care to the patients.
Huna I know there are less facilities in our island,
but I can give awareness so that they can take care of themselves.
Muna I think the biggest reward is yet to come,
to see better nursing care all over the country. 26:03
Narrator Thanks in part to her Australia Awards scholarship,
Fathimath and her colleagues are now working on a national masters course to help improve
health services even further. Scores of students like Huna will graduate soon as the Maldives
first home-trained bachelor-level nurses.