His Highness the Aga Khan: the importance of the nursing profession

“For the Aga Khan University, education of women and that they should participate in the development of this institution and in the development of the country, is a fundamentally important principle.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
Karachi, Pakistan
November 22, 1996

“I have long felt the enhancement of the nursing profession to be absolutely critical to the improvement of health care in the developing world, and the Islamic world. The way forward was to professionalise, to institutionalise, and to dignify this great profession.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
Recipient of the Archon Award of the prestigious nursing honour society – Sigma Theta Tau International
Copenhagen, Denmark
June 7, 2001
Speech at Press Centre, AKDN

“The programmes carried out by AKU’s School of Nursing over the last two decades have clearly demonstrated that a focus on nursing advancement enhances the status of women by making them indispensable partners in societal advancement. Nursing, primarily a women’s profession in Pakistan, empowers women and improves their status in their communities. It provides positive role models for other women, strengthens their decision-making and problem-solving capabilities in the eyes of others, and promotes their personal, professional, and financial autonomy. When AKU began operations in Pakistan, nursing was a very low status profession, and nursing studies were a neglected discipline in health education.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
The World Bank InfoDev Conference, Washington, DC
November 10, 1999

“When this University was conceived, Nursing was one of the founding concerns that we had. It was a profession that needed support, recognition, enhancement. But it was part of a more significant issue which was the education of women in Pakistan…I would like to take this occasion to say also that the School of Nursing which after all was the first part of the Aga Khan University, it was the the first component of this institution. An institution is a complex set of activities which must grow with, or ahead of the University as a whole. And the trustees and I have attached, and will continue to attach very, very great importance to the growth of the School of Nursing…For the Aga Khan University, education of women and that they should participate in the development of this institution and in the development of the country, is a fundamentally important principle.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
Opening of the Rufayda-al-Aslamiya wing, Aga Khan University
Karachi, Pakistan
November 22, 1996

“This proud occasion conveys the hope I place in the growing quality of the nursing profession and higher education in nursing in Pakistan. For professional women doctors, nurses, teachers will need to play a vital role in the nation’s development during the crucial years to come.”
His Highness the Aga Khan
Third Convocation of the Aga Khan University, Faculty of Health Sciences and School of Nursing
Karachi, Pakistan
November 17, 1990
Speech published in African Ismaili, 1991

“We must now work also to create a profession, a sustaining environment of dignity and honour, for the nurses we train. If we do not, our young nurses will leave their vocation or become alienated and discouraged. If we do not grasp and meet their aspirations, we shall never develop and retain those senior nurse managers that give a nursing staff its sense of purpose and standards. If we do not counter cultural taboos, with understanding and tolerance and imagination, we shall find that… in Pakistan, the nursing profession will be constrained by factors of low community support and regard.

My message to all graduating doctors, nurses and health workers, then, is that the world needs your professionalism. But it also needs your imagination, your energy, and an abiding humility and curiosity about the human beings you serve – and about those subtle, deep, non-material forces that motivate them.”
His Highness the Aga Khan, Convocation Address
McMaster University
Hamilton, Ontario
May 15, 1987
Ontario Ismaili, July 1987

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Aga Khan University (AKU) established the first professional nursing programme in Pakistan over 35 years ago. Today, AKU continues to lead the way in East Africa and Pakistan, offering undergraduate and graduate programmes as well as continuing education courses.
Schools of Nursing and Midwifery

The Aga Khan University-Advanced Nursing Studies (AKU-ANS) programme represents a coordinated response to the need for health sector reform in the East African region.
Advanced Nursing Studies

AKU School of Nursing Partnerships and Collaboration
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Compiled by Nimira Dewji