Everything in Geni Sheikh’s life prepared her to work with Nurse-Family Partnership.
The former Somali refugee was attending college in Kenya when war broke out at home. Unable to return, she found shelter in a refugee camp, where she met her husband. The couple eventually resettled in Seattle, where Geni learned she was pregnant with her first child.
“I was happy to be pregnant, but I didn’t know what to do,” she remembers. “I didn’t speak English and had no relatives to guide me. The cultural shock was extreme.”
As her son grew, Geni learned English while watching “Barney” and “Sesame Street.” The staff
at Downtown Public Health—Seattle & King County, and Downtown Public Health Center, where she was receiving support services, noticed and asked her to serve as an interpreter with Somali patients.
Geni agreed and began working alongside nurse home visitors from Public Health—Seattle & King County. Their care for other Somali women inspired Geni, and she decided to become a nurse home visitor.
Over the next six years, Geni earned her bachelor’s in nursing, interned at the University of Washington Medical Center and welcomed three more children into her family. In 2016, she became an NFP nurse home visitor where she had begun her journey, joining the team that once served her.
Today, Geni works primarily with first-time Somali moms. Like her, they often arrive without any knowledge of English, family, money or jobs.
For Geni, serving other Somali moms by drawing on their common language, cultural heritage and refugee experience has special meaning. Refugee moms face daunting challenges, but, because of Nurse-Family Partnership nurses like Geni, they also have reason to hope.
“I look at their strength, and I know they can do the job,” she says. “Seeing them and knowing there is a program like Nurse-Family Partnership to help, that fuels my hope for the future.”
Geni’s story shows why year after year, Americans rate nursing as the most trusted profession in Gallup’s annual poll. Her expert, compassionate service to first-time moms illustrates the trusting bond at the heart of Nurse-Family Partnership. With the skilled guidance of a personal nurse, moms gain confidence and discover their inner strength, enabling them to build resilient families that can meet whatever challenges life brings.
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