Fatoumata Bah is nurse-midwife in the Gambia. She worked for many years as a perioperative nurse, then later worked in pediatrics. Fatoumata also worked as a midwife in one of the major health centers in the greater Banjul area (Faji-kunda Health centre). At this facility, she delivered reproductive health services at both base and outreach clinics. In 2005, she moved to academia where she educated registered nurses and midwives at The Gambia College School of Nursing & Midwifery (GCSNM). She served in various academic leadership positions at the GCSNM and currently serves as the head of school. As a member of the GCSNM senior management team, she continues to be engaged in both teaching and administrative activities. She participants on a regular basis in policy and document validation reviews organized by the Ministry of Health in the Gambia. Fatoumata has a Master of Public Health and post graduate diploma in public policy from Curtin University in Australia.
Applied Project Title: Strategies to Increase the Number of Skilled Health Care Workers in The Gambia
In The Gambia, lack of an adequate health workforce leads to poor quality care and an unacceptably high number of preventable deaths. Currently, the nurse-to-patient ratio of .6/1,000 is far less than the WHO recommended 2.5/1,000. Nurses and midwives continue to leave the country due to poor working conditions and other financial stressors. This project focused on ways to address these challenges by uniting stakeholders from the public and private sectors to train more second-level nurses and midwives, and provide motivation for them to remain in the country, thus improving health care access and outcomes.