The shortage of doctors and nurses in Kenya has long inflicted the country. While nurses provide the bulk of direct patient care
throughout the health system (they deliver babies and provide prenatal and postnatal care to mothers, administer HIV tests, provide treatment to those who test positive, and do a myriad of other
tasks), there are just 19,500 nurses working in facilities across the country (not including private facilities). This works out to approximately 51 deployed nurses per 100,000 people in Kenya.
This compares to 921 registered nurses per 100,000 people in the United States and even bigger in other developed nations .
As the government has committed to hiring more nurses, the time for training nurses in Kenya is now. St. Vincent’s is excited to be
supporting this effort by providing scholarships to nursing students. Currently, we have one student enrolled in a nursing program and one previous scholar who has completed the program – a small
but important contribution to increase the number of nurses available to serve their communities. Our current scholar, Priscilla, is studying nursing at Kenyan Medical Training College. Like all
of St. Vincent’s scholars who are living in poverty and have lost parents, this support enables Priscilla to pursue higher education in a field in which she is passionate.
Author : Alice Wanjiru Adminstraror at SVDPCDO
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