Shaminah Ngoma completed her nurse education with Birmingham City University in 2011. After a varied background in emergency nursing, and critical care, Shaminah is now a Co-ordinating Nurse with an international medical and security assistance company. Between 2024 and 2025, Shaminah volunteered to support our Remote International Mentorship Partnership Scheme (RIMPS) project in Zambia.
The RIMPS project involved linking up international mentors with critical care nurses across Zambia. Shaminah worked in partnership with a critical care nurse from Australia to mentor a critical care nurse in Lewanika, Western Province of Zambia.
Shaminah, originally from Uganda was keen to support a Zambian colleague, as she had never been involved in an international mentorship project. Also, she wanted to understand the realities of nursing and healthcare in another country, as this links to her role, in which she often has to give advice to international travellers.
Reflecting on the experience Shaminah recognised that their similarities in emergency and critical care nursing and felt they had all learnt from each other. However, there had been one major surprise, when she found out ‘just how little they have… how amazing it is that they do all they can do for their patients regardless of the limitations that they've got in terms of their resources’.
Shaminah says that there were some similarities, for example, when working in the Emergency Department (ED), some patients expect immediate treatment and don’t understand there is a triage system and what it is. Being an Emergency Nurse, it brought back memories of the challenges of working in ED and seeing high numbers of patients. In her current role working for an international assistance company, the experience has increased Shaminah’s awareness of healthcare systems in other countries. For example, ‘I didn't know the distances between different hospitals, for example if a patient needs specialist care from some Provinces they need to Lusaka and that would be a good 7 or 8 hours’ drive on a good day’. Hearing the reality made it real for and has changed how she sees things now, as she pointed out it is not same as looking at a map of facilities it puts the challenges into context, and learning about the region and realities of care was an important part of learning.
Shaminah has shared her experiences with her colleagues across the world with a special session which coincided with International Nurses Day. Also, Shaminah has been able to use her experience when briefing clients and ‘actually tell them we have had experience in remote working in that region and what we would advise’.
Overall, Shaminah said the whole experience was ‘mind blowing’ and would do it all again.