SHARING
SHARING PRACTICE AND RESEARCH EXPERTISE
WITH OUR GLOBAL NEIGHBORS IN MALAWI
Known as the “Warm Heart of Africa,” Malawi is a country of
scenic beauty nestled at the southern end of Africa’s rift valley.
Tourists from around the world visit its national parks, wildlife
refuges and Lake Malawi, the world’s ninth largest lake.
But, Malawi, like much of sub-Saharan Africa, carries a heavy burden
of poverty and disease, and a lack of trained doctors, nurses, and
midwives. In a capital city hospital, three nurses care for 200 babies,
and a newspaper published a picture of seven babies in one bed. In
a rural clinic, a nurse conducted 151 prenatal assessments in one day,
with the help of Associate Dean Barbara Smith, PhD, RN, FACSM,
FAAN, who took 151 blood pressures, feeling fortunate to have a
cuff to work with. Many people in rural areas simply can’t access
healthcare due to poor roads and lack of transportation.
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For more than a decade, Smith has worked to improve nurse
capacity and safety in Africa. Her “Smith Bucket Theory,” likens
this challenge to filling a bucket. But when the bucket has holes,