Innovation, education and variety: the career of a Ugandan nurse

Nurses worldwide are engaged in innovative activities every day, resulting in significant improvements in the health of patients and communities. Their contributions are fundamental for progress in the provision of health care around the world. Nurses continue to make a difference; working in all types of settings with diverse populations and communities. As part of the first ever global Year of the Nurse and Midwife, I spoke to Emmanuel Ochola (known as Emma), a Ugandan registered nurse and midwife, at the Northern Uganda Diocese for the Church of Uganda Health Centres where he has worked for four-and-a-half years and whom I know through the partnership with Nurses Reaching Out, a UK charity that has a community project in the Northern Uganda Diocese.

After training at Lacor Nursing School, Gulu [in Uganda], I moved to South Sudan and worked in a hospital before moving to a rural health centre. I learnt Arabic so I could communicate better with patients and families. The time there became the foundation for working with the Church of Uganda Health Centres.