Humans of Safe Care, Saving Lives

This is the first in a series of profiles of the dedicated individuals behind the Safe Care, Saving Lives project. Safe Care, Saving Lives is a quality improvement project to improve neonatal care in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

“My journey with newborns started in September 2012 at District Hospital Machilipatnam. I get tremendous satisfaction from helping these little ones live and thrive. I feel I give them hope to achieve great things in life. It is this emotional connection with each baby that drives me at work every day.

Whenever someone asks me about the last time I was happy, I tell them it is each and every day that I spend at the special newborn care unit giving care to sick newborns. I take pride in calling myself a nurse, one who is empowered with knowledge and skills to save tiny lives everyday. Babies deserve the best in us, the best of our efforts, the best of our resources, and the best quality healthcare.

My colleagues and I look at every day as an opportunity to improve – to improve ourselves, our processes, and our care.

My parents were initially against nursing because of social and financial issues. They believed that nursing was not something that their daughter should pursue.

All the effort that I put into convincing my parents that nursing is a profession that any woman who is passionate about caring can take up paid off when I got to care for my father after he was injured in a fire accident at his workplace. Lying in the hospital bed in the intensive care unit and looking up at me, my father said, ‘You proved me wrong.’

These words are my strength. They continue to linger in my consciousness.”