Guest Contribution by Prof. Lisa Marie Pratt Director Chief Academic Officer, Fatima College of Health Sciences FCHS

Abu Dhabi, UAE

First of all, thank you so much for the warm welcome to the Emirates Nursing Association- ENA, I am both thrilled and humbled to become a member of this wonderful organization.

It has now been just over ten months since I moved to the UAE to take up the exciting post of Director/Chief Academic Officer of Fatima College Of Health Sciences (FCHS), a college that has been on a progressive journey to be a leading provider of health sciences education for the UAE. To date FCHS has graduated over 2000 health professionals with over 1,250 being nurses.

Deciding to come and work in the UAE from the UK was a significant decision for me to make but became more and more compelling as I learnt about the ambitions for world leading nursing practices, the friendliness of the Emirati people and the role that FCHS could play in supporting the UAE to build a sustainable domestic healthcare workforce for the future.

However, little did I know about the formidable driving force of UAE nurse leaders such as Dr. Safa Al Mustafa, Sumaya Al blooshi, Aysha Al Mehri, Fatima Al Rifai, Farha Hisham to mention a few, who are tirelessly shaping the image of the Emirate Nurse, driving excellence, striving to introduce nurse led services and most importantly paving the way to ensure that UAE nurses and midwives have meaningful career progression opportunities.  

In addition, I was incredibly excited to learn about the UAE National Strategy for Nursing/Midwifery: A Roadmap to 2026 (https://lnkd.in/dbtbaCHh) and even more thrilled to be invited to head up the 4th pillar ‘Quality and Innovative Education and Professional Development’ with key inspirational nurse educators across the UAE.

In summary, whilst the move to the UAE was at times a little daunting, the nursing community here, like so many places elsewhere, has not only warmly welcomed me with kindness, support and advice, but also inspired and made me incredibly proud to be a nurse, it certainly is "One Voice...One Future" here in the UAE and I am incredibly lucky to be playing a part.

www.fchs.ac.ae