Rutgers Nursing Magazine - Summer 2020

R E S E A R C H E X C E L L E N C E I n Nigeria, Hope for Safer Births and Healthier Mothers A G E N E ROU S GRAN T I S H E L P I NG T O F I ND WAY S O F T RA I N I NG L OCA L M I DW I V E S AND G E T T I NG T H EM MOR E QU I CK LY I N T O T H E COMMUN I T I E S T HAT D E S P E RAT E LY N E E D T H EM . I In rural Nigeria, a severe shortage of health care providers is further threatening the well-being of a population already beset by poverty, unemployment, terrorism, and the world’s second highest rate of childhood mortality. As a native Nigerian, Dr. Emilia Iwu (PhD, RN, APNC, FWACN)—a clinical assistant professor at Rutgers School of Nursing—has worked for the past 15 years to help address that shortage, training health care workers to provide care for those suffering from HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria. More recently, she’s helped train adolescents living with HIV to act as supporters and educators for other young people also living with HIV. And starting this year, Iwu will be attacking the provider shortage in an additional way, as part of a program training women from rural Nigerian communities to work as midwives in areas where OB/GYN practitioners are in short supply or simply nonexistent. R U T G E R S N U R S I N G / S U M M E R 2 0 2 0 10 / 11