An interview with , Lecturer at the Department of Nursing.
1. What is your current role?
I’m a lecturer and coordinator of the MSc Nursing programme. Furthermore, I coordinate a Sexual and Reproductive Health Research programme, encouraging students to take up a Master’s Degree By Research related to this area, including sexuality and relationships education, reproductive health education and sexual health promotion with the University of Malta.
2. What does nursing mean to you?
Studying nursing and the health care sciences over two decades ago has opened a whole new world of opportunities for me: From caring for patients under anaesthesia to drafting policies at the World Health Organisation headquarters in Geneva; from health promotion and public health to primary health care; from nutrition and dietetics to genito-urinary medicine; and from promoting positive sexuality and sexual health among school-children to lecturing for professional nurses, doctors, teachers and others.
Nursing gave me a heightened sense of purpose to my life, and the motivation to drive myself to a satisfying future, for me and for others.
3. In your role (e.g. as Dean of the faculty and a nurse yourself) how do you promote the theme "Nurses a Voice to Lead"?
Advocacy is a pillar of nursing. Since the days of Florence Nightingale, patient advocacy has been an important nursing responsibility. Nightingale laid the foundation for patient advocacy by consistently insisting on quality of care, including a safe and clean environment, and basic human rights for all. Nurses instinctively advocate for their patients, in their workplaces, and in their communities; but legislative and political advocacy is no less important to advancing the profession and patient care.
Children and young people have a right for sexuality and sexual health education. For over a decade, I advocated for mandatory, holistic and comprehensive sexuality and relationships education (SRE) to children and young people in all Maltese schools, from the primary school years to post-secondary education. My research voiced young people’s learning needs that led sexual health education policy and practice guidelines in Malta. By promoting and facilitating collaboration between our Health, Education and Church authorities, today Maltese youths enjoy the benefits of a culture-sensitive and age-appropriate sexuality and relationships education that is integrated within the national minimum curriculum framework, facilitated by purposely trained education professionals – which is among the best practice examples of SRE in Europe and beyond.
4. Today (or this week) we celebrate nurses as heroes, what message would you like to deliver to all nurses out there?
Over the last 25 years I have seen nursing evolve as nurses are tasked with an even wider range of responsibilities, beyond the bedside, and using an array of hi-tech tools in a technologically-advanced world.
Patients too evolved in a digitalised world. Caring for people has unquestionably gotten more intricate and complex. We, nursing academics too stood up to the challenge, became more digitally ambitious as we seek to empower nurses navigate new health technology and modern clinical systems with professional competence by way of advanced nursing education.
However, new technology shouldn’t preclude traditional care. The fundamental values of the nursing profession remain the same. Whatever tools and technologies, the nurse’s primary role remains that of a caregiver and advocate for the most vulnerable members of our community. Use your knowledge and position to support, protect and speak out for the rights and interests of others. Lead, guide and support other nurses so they too can provide the best care.
