International Day of the Nurse

For many, a visit to the hospital is defined by the care they receive during their time there. Whether their stay is a few hours or a few weeks, patients often leave feeling gratitude for the attention paid to their needs and often leave feeling gratitude for those who cared for them, their nurses.  

As we take the time to honor all nurses today on the International Day of the Nurse, it is important that we recognize that while each nurse is ensuring they provide adequate care for each patient they see, each nurse is not starting with the same resources in order to execute that care.  

In Geita, a remote, rural region in northern Tanzania, doctors, nurses, and midwives used to struggle daily to provide necessary care to their patients, especially expectant mothers. Without access to clean water, deadly infections spread through unhygienic conditions. Healthcare workers knew that mothers did not want to come to health centers due to the lack of sanitation. When patients did come to the health centers, healthcare workers knew that the lack of infection prevention and control was putting the lives of mothers and babies at risk and contributing to antibiotic resistance. Every day, nurses knew going to work meant there was a high possibility they would contract an infection as well.

Everlyne Okello, 34, a Nurse at Kharumwa Health Centre, attending to a patient, Nyang’wale District, Geita region, Tanzania, May, 2022.

Image: WaterAid/ Richard Raphael

In the past four years, WaterAid has worked to transform 12 healthcare centers across Geita with clean water, sanitation and infection control. The midwives, nurses, and healthcare workers are now able to provide their patients with quality care and a clean environment. As a result, they are improving maternal and newborn outcomes for mothers and babies in Geita.

By ensuring that every healthcare setting has access to adequate WASH services, WaterAid donors ensure the safety and dignity of the people who devote their lives to the health of mothers and children. You can support nurses like those in Geita today by clicking the link below.

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