The Erin’s Campaign for Kids Nursing Awards recognized two nursing students in 2020. One of these awards went to Mathias Mugabe, a student at Mayanja Memorial Medical Training Institute in Uganda. Mathias was also last year’s honoree in the category of International Nurse for his work at Holy Innocents Children’s Hospital in Mbarara, Uganda.
After losing his 9-month-old brother to sepsis in 2014, Mathias developed a passion for nursing and effective sepsis treatment and care.
In addition to being a nursing student, Mathias is also the Minister of Health at the institute, where he promotes and ensures adequate personal hygiene and sanitation. Throughout the past 6 months of serving in this position, Mathias has helped establish new handwashing and sanitation stations and lobbied for additional infection prevention measures.
Mathias also provides first aid to other students at the institute. “I provide first aid to all students who develop signs of sepsis, which includes conducting minor investigations such as rapid tests for malaria parasites, H-pylori, and HIV under the supervision of our school nurse,” said Mathia of his duties. “I provide first doses of antibiotics within five minutes….at our teaching hospital I ensure the general cleanliness…all equipment is disinfected and sterilized in order to reduce the rate of sepsis on postoperative patients.”
Mathis applied for this award to complete his schooling and said, “This will help me to attain my dream of advancing my skills to adequately deliver healthcare to communities, conduct outreach and weekly healthcare programs, and produce communication in newspapers about prevention, control, identification of sepsis. All of these efforts are to help reduce the mortality rate of patients with sepsis.”
“After my school, I will work tirelessly to make sure the people of Uganda are well informed about sepsis.”
