In May we mark both International Day of the Nurse and International Day of the Midwife – a moment to honour the dedication, compassion, and expertise of the nurses and midwives in our NHS and around the world. Nurses and midwives are critical to many of the health partnerships and projects that CGHP supports – in particular across critical care, antimicrobial stewardship and maternity care. They lead the reciprocal teaching and training with their counterparts around the world and work together with kindness and compassion to build confidence, implement best practice and improve patient outcomes everywhere.
On Friday 9 May we joined Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (CUH) at a Nursing and Midwifery roadshow to share and celebrate the amazing work of these staff around the Trust and beyond. It was an opportunity for CGHP’s three current East of England Global Health Fellows from Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professions to tell their colleagues about the global health projects they’re involved in and the skills they’re building through their fellowship year.
In the afternoon, CUH’s annual award ceremony for International Day of the Nurse and Midwife was a chance to celebrate and honour those who’ve made the biggest impact. CGHP sponsors an award recognising the contribution of a nurse or midwife to global health. This year our very deserving winner was Zimbabwean nurse and midwife Tinotendra Manyere who works at Cambridge IVF.
Passionate about global health, Tino demonstrates a commitment to making things better for staff and patients in both the NHS and healthcare systems in low and middle income countries. In 2024 she volunteered her time and expertise on a one-month placement in Kenya to strengthen and improve maternal and neonatal care at Kakamega County Teaching and Referral Hospital. During this placement she inspired and supported fellow nurses to implement infection prevention control practices. Always striving for excellence, Tino drew on her NHS experience to embed aseptic techniques for specific procedures and reinforced to the nursing staff the consequences of taking short cuts. The impact of her involvement will be better use of infection prevention control measures that will help to reduce maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality.
As a Zimbabwean diaspora staff member, Tino brings a wealth of knowledge and skills developed in her home country and encourages and inspires other diaspora staff to engage with global health work. Incredibly self-motivated, she applied for and secured funding to support another project to improve access to fertility services in Harare, usually only available to private patients. With support from CGHP and Cambridge IVF, in December 2024 she planned, organised and co-delivered fertility training sessions to more than 40 healthcare staff, tailored to a low resource environment. Her efforts resulted in the reopening of a public fertility clinic and more than 50 people seeking treatment within the first two days.
Tino has since supported the visit of a delegation of Zimbabwean nurses to the UK and continues to champion the importance of global health in making things better for staff and patients everywhere.
At the award ceremony, Tino also received CUH’s Midwife Led Research Award, presented by Professor Joanne McPeake, recognising her research-led approach in delivering best practice care that results in sustainable improvements. This year, she has been focusing on the stigma surrounding fertility treatment, particularly in low-income countries, and has undertaken a review of current literature to inform future research and improve access to fertility services.
Tino will be presenting her findings at the CUH Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health Professionals (NMAHP) Conference in June. She is also one of our inspirational speakers at CGHP’s Impact Celebration & Awards in Cambridge on Thursday 26 June for which there is still a few tickets left.
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