Health for All, and Health Above All

Namaste. I am Gaunima Manandhar, a registered nurse in Nepal.

Talking about my journey into Global Health, I have just completed my Bachelor of Science in Nursing and started working as a Field Researcher for Nepal Health Research Council (NHRC). I graduated from Kathmandu University School of Medical Sciences, and got to know about this opportunity from my Nursing Director, Prof. Dr. Kunta Devi Pun, and after that I got connected to Dr. Bibha Simkhada, Senior Lecturer in Adult Nursing and Deputy Director of Graduate Education, University of Huddersfield. She has been my inspiration since day one.

Women have been facing a lot of challenges not only in health care but in all the other sectors too. It is quite difficult for Nepalese women to reach out to health care facilities as a result of the patriarchal society. In Nepal, more than 90% of nurses are women and while providing healthcare to patients, nurses face different kinds of challenges. For example, many patients and their family members treat nurses indifferently. Likewise, I have seen people talking to male doctors more respectfully than they do female doctors. Yes, the qualifications of women in our society are increasing but due to the society, women are still behind men and it’s rare seeing women in higher positions compared to men.

The Nursing Now Challenge Fellowship Programme developed by the Tropical Health and Education Trust (THET) with its partners, the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), the UBORA Institute and the Burdett Trust for Nursing, has been helping to address the lack of female leadership in the health workforce.

Through the programme, we are engaging in interactive classes on Zoom with people from eight different countries. We have common as well as different challenges in our work which we discuss. Also, we are having classes related to leadership and quality improvement which is in-turn helping us to become great leaders. We will be providing training to other nurses in our country which will surely help us build our leadership skills and also help the ones who participate in our training program.

Health for all, and health above all. International Women’s Day is a global day celebrating the social, cultural, economic and political achievements of women. Uplifting women’s status and celebrating is helping women to achieve better health conditions. Therefore, in my opinion, International Women’s Day is helping to promote better lives and better health for women. Healthy women lead to healthy families and healthy nations.

The slogan #BreakTheBias means treating men and women equally and breaking the stereotypes about women. I believe we are stronger together and women need to help each other grow. I am really very thankful to Dr. Bibha Simkhada, Prof. Dr. Kunta Devi Pun, THET, UGHE, UBORA Institute and the Burdett Trust for providing me with such an opportunity to grow and help others to grow.

To find out more about the Nursing Now Fellowship Programme, please click here.