Nursing With A Difference :: Nursing Education and Beyond

Annual Report : Year 2005-2006

Another year of challenges and achievements brings in its wake increasing understanding of the difficulties surrounding Nurses and Nursing.

In particularly Nurses in the more remote North East areas of our vast Nation, who, in positions of responsibility do not have the privilege of frequent interaction with key Nurses at the National level that their counterparts are privy to in the major metropolitan cities.

As a result Nursing With A Difference Trust is even more committed to use what has been gained to create and exploit every opportunity possible to reach and encourage Nurses who are geographically or otherwise marginalized from the centres of opportunity.

After almost two full years of constant moving, due each time to factors beyond our control, Nursing With A Difference Trust is now settled in what we expect to be a more permanent base in Delhi.

Change brings opportunity, in this instance interaction with more Nurses in East Delhi, several of whom quickly became active in contributing to the work of the Trust, and with one becoming a member.

Communication Update

A mobile will help to keep us better linked in the future:

Mobile
09868094501
0996839085

Email: sdknwad@yahoo.co.uk

All emails have been very much appreciated.

Postal Address remains unchanged:
Nursing With A Difference
C-420 Defence Colony
New Delhi 110024.

In addition we now have a base in New Zealand which is currently staffed from March through August each year:
Nursing With A Difference
6 Lawrie Avenue
Pukekohe 2120
New Zealand
Telephone 0064 09 239 0917

Accountabilty

The primary focus of our visits during 2005-6 were to Nurses in Ludhiana, Punjab, and the more remote North East States of Meghalaya and Tripura .

Ludhiana The TNAI Conference was a great way of meeting up with Nurses who had previously attended Nursing With A Difference programs and had received Modules and Song Books in the many States already visited, as well as to learn first hand from Nurses in other States.

Nurses from the Christian Medical College and Brown Memorial Hospital, as in the past, made a tremendous contribution, having encouraged Nurses joining Nursing Services, the Faculty of the College of Nursing, graduating students and MSC Nurses from within and out of India, to purchase and use the Modules:

87 sets of Modules generating Rupees 30,450.00 plus donations amounting to Rupees 680.00

May each Nurse be encouraged, strengthened and better equipped as she/he reads and appropriates .

Of this Rupees 20,000 was immediately placed in fixed deposit to be used for the forthcoming programs planned for Sikkim and Arunachal.

The balance helped to meet expenses for the scheduled programs in Meghalaya and Tripura. The total costs which amounted to Rupees 28,078.00.(Rupees twenty-eight thousand and seventy-eight) does not include the Trust resources donated to these two States as shown below.

Nursing With A Difference Resources donated to Meghalaya and to Tripura

Meghalaya

Tripura

NWAD Rescources	Donated	Value in Rs.
Sets of six Modules	214	74,900
Odd Modules (Approx.)	60	3,600
Song Books	1100	22,000
Total		Rs.100,500

NWAD Rescources	Donated	Value in Rs.
Sets of six Modules	226	79,100
Odd Modules (Approx.)	120	7,200
Song Books	1300	26,000
Total		Rs.112,300

Donations Received

NWAD acknowledges with sincere thanks the generous contribution of individual Nurses in Meghalaya that amounted to Rs.4,150 (Rupees Four thousand one hundred and fifty) receipts were issued and these donations will go towards helping Nurses in other States later in 2006.

Nursing With A Difference acknowledge with gratitude the tremendous contribution that CMC Nurses have made over the past 18 years, from the very early development which culminated in the formation of the Trust in 1998 and continues to this day.

Delhi

All India Medical Institute Department of Nursing Services also deserves a special note of appreciation for their sustained commitment to Continuing Education on a National scale, in addition to which the Nurse Administrators continue to promote the sale of Modules to Nurses joining the staff.

The interest of Nurses in East Delhi following the move of our Trust Headquarters to Shadhara in October, and in particular the younger Nurses who have purchased and then encouraged their colleagues in other Instititutions spread throughout Delhi to do likewise, has been most encouraging.

None of the above has been achieved without diligence, hard work and personal cost of time. It has been done as a heart response to the LORD God Almighty before whom we took our pledge. We rejoice that every Nurse in CMC and all other Nurses who have contributed, can have the assurance of:

“Knowing that from the LORD each one shall receive the reward of the inheritance,

for you serve the LORD Christ” Colossians 4 23-24

“Knowing that whatever good anyone does, he will receive the same from the LORD…

For there is no partiality with Him .” Ephesians 6:8-9

Humbled yet Built Up by Other Helpers

At times, the blatant exploitation of the Health Services through Nurses, Nursing Services and Nursing Education, sadly by some Nurses, the Medical Profession, Politicians and the Private business world, whose practices are ostensibly in the interest of Nurses and people care, but which are in reality financially driven for personal gain, generates disgust.

It is therefore, of great importance that you share with us as we thank:

The Indian Railways for the tremendous service they continue to give us. What joy to say with integrity that every official has rendered us an economical, efficient service of quality.

When one is in the midst of millions of tonnes of packages leaving Delhi for every far flung corner of India the full force of our responsibility hits home, not just to thank, but to pray specifically for all these people and their families who so cheerfully enable us to contribute to Nursing development.

Gracious Generosity and Goodwill

Packing, cartage, labour and travel expenses were greatly reduced this year through the most unexpected and generous help of countless people.

While it is not possible to record accurately all the details of help received, the following constitutes that which saved Nursing With A Difference thousands of rupees and for which all Nurses need to be aware as a powerful reminder of the goodwill and appreciation that these good folk have for Nurses and Nursing:

Crossing Borders

The Managing Director for the whole of the North East of a large national firm:

Made his car and driver available in Assam from point of arrival to departure.
This kindly gentleman with his gifted wife and wee daughter provided the comfort and blessing of their lovely home, including the use of telephone, extensive valuable information, and much needed rest for two days on arrival and two days prior to departure from the North East.
In addition he arranged collection and transfer of 17 large packages from the Guwahati Railway Goods Depot, to Godown before arranging for me to merely ensure the correct packages were dispatched to Meghalaya and to the godown in Silchar until a venue in Tripura had been arranged.

This wonderful help continued until the packages were safely delivered to the assigned venues in both Meghalaya and Tripura.

This was without doubt the most extensive help with this mammoth and highly expensive exercise we have ever been privileged to receive, and for which the extra two days had been allowed.

This gentleman, with his family and his employees, crossed every man made border to express his solidarity with Nurses, and united responsibility for the quality of Nurses and Nursing, for the peoples of the nation, in:

States where all the borders are jealously guarded for insurgency,
The business world, where ‘Big Businesses’ zealously guard profit margins,
‘Prestigious families’ where help of value is discreetly administered to family members or when appropriate, where accolades of influence expect to precede future triumphs.

NB this acknowledgement in no way under-rates the very much appreciated assistance in other States received from very busy Nurses and Indian Railway staff.

Little but Important

Looking back over the year at the thousands of kilometres travelled on foot, bicycle and auto- Rickshaw, taxi, bus, sumo, jeep, private car, aeroplane and train to meet with around 2000 Nurses, has been costly in terms of energy, time and finance.

Nurses everywhere are paying a high price, but unfortunately, in the midst of their struggle, not all have the joy and deep sense of satisfaction that we have been privy to.

The value of each tiny act of kindness, help, and offering of food, accommodation or transport far exceeds all cost. Each brings with it the warmth and generosity of one or more people from as many different people groups, each with its own particular contribution to the mosaic of life that spells caring, compassion, love and need.

Each hurdle has a value. The little that Nursing With A Difference has offered is the seed. The early-harvest from each seed was seen in the expression of each Nurse, in the hunger and eagerness to gain, grasp or receive both tangible and intangible benefits of shared opportunity.

Sadly in a few, but thankfully in a very few, there was a sense of ‘hopelessness – what’s the point – attitude. Our prayer is that rather than become more disintegrated these Nurses will re-think and find what may have momentarily eluded them.

The mid-harvest will come as Nurses appropriate in the practical areas of service and teaching what she/he has found relevant for their particular need.

The late-harvest will come only in that great and glorious day when every Nurse will stand before our creator and receive the reward for diligence in having "sought first the kingdom of God…" in decision making and in practising the art and science of Nursing; and by consciously allowing Him to work the work of righteousness in and through each one, thus making the sum of Nursing services to each patient/client, as good salt, cleansing, healing and restoring - each Nurse a living beacon of light and hope.

Our deepest desire is that every Nurse will see her or himself as God sees them, i.e., as a precious instrument in His hand that He is ready to refine and use, giving each the privilege of bringing through His reconciling power, health and wholeness to all peoples–the afflicted, their families, their whole people groups.

Little becomes important, not by what someone else does or doesn’t do, not by the system that oppresses and crushes, BUT by what each Nurses appropriates, taking to herself/himself all that the Great Physician and Great High Priest, Jesus Christ offers each one.

Thus equipped with a firm foundation, Nurses will be in a position to address each little area of dissonance in Nursing with professional strength. The little becomes a deep river with rivulets flowing out into the multiple complex communities within the Health Services in each State.

Importance cannot be truly measured by position or by publicity. BUT it is measured by the lives that have been transformed through tender, loving care, by Administrators who find themselves taking the blinkers off their eyes, by the Government, Military and Railway Health services being recognized for the genuiness and quality of advice, care and support from birth to death. By those in the business-world who care.

Importance is directly related to where one stands before a Holy God who sees through the façade of materialism, social and professional status that is politically motivated, to where these are based on true justice and the accompanying dignity of all peoples.

It is the little - evils, sins, weaknesses, foibles, indulgences of self, acts of indolence, indecision, slovenliness, cowardice, aberrations from integrity, covetousness, indifference to the feelings or needs of others - that have been nurtured by the spirit of deception to rob Nurses.

The first little hesitant step of faith, the first trembling look up into the Saviour’s face and the first shaky extension of hand is sufficient for any Nurse to experience the flow of grace and strength, sufficient to make every little step of great importance.