Out of Suffering, a Call to Nursing
Team Heart - Rwanda 2008 members have the support and insight of Rwanda native Egidia Rugwizangoga, BSN, RN, of Tower 4, as they plan a cardiac surgery mission to King Faisal Hospital in Kigali. Rugwizangoga shares her story with BWH Nurse.
Egidia Rugwizangoga was just 14 when horrific genocide ravaged her native Rwanda in 1994, killing an estimated 800,000 people. Separated from her family, Rugwizangoga spent weeks going from home to home, hiding in attics and other tiny spaces with little food while she feared for her life.
Eventually, she?made it to a refugee camp where she remained until the war was over. “In the camp, they taught anyone who could read or write to do basic nursing things, like change dressings,” she recalled. “I started to like it. Here I was, trying to save lives after so many were destroyed.”
Many of her friends and family members?did not survive the genocide, but Rugwizangoga tried to focus on helping as many people as she could. “From the experience, I came to realize that nursing is what I was meant to do,” she said. “I love nursing. It gave me hope that after all those bad things, I can be part of saving lives.”
At the end of 1995, she enrolled at a nursing high school in Rwanda, where she learned about injections, drawing blood, applying dressings—and delivering a baby. “There are not enough physicians in Rwanda to deliver every baby, so nurses have to,” said Rugwizangoga, who worked as a student at King Faisal Hospital in Kigali. “It was a requirement to graduate.”
The experience of her first delivery, a healthy baby boy, solidified her desire to become a nurse. “Just seeing those babies coming into this world gave me hope to go on and be a nurse,” she said.
After finishing high school in 1999, due to persistent safety issues, she left Rwanda and came to Boston. Rugwizangoga, who spoke French and Kinyarwandan, learned English from the Sisters of Notre Dame in South Boston. “I could only say ‘hi’ and ‘good morning’ when I came,” she said.
She became a member of St. Mark’s Church in Dorchester, and a priest helped her find a job at the state auditor’s office. After a few years, she was introduced to BWH, where she began as a patient care assistant on Tower 16 while attending UMass-Boston for her BSN.
As she cared for patients at BWH, she saw stark differences between health care in the U.S. and Rwanda. She also noticed many similarities.
“The environment is different here than in Rwanda,” she said, noting the ample equipment, up-to-date textbooks and other resources that BWH clinicians access easily. “But people are the same everywhere. We all have needs, we all want to be taken care of, no matter our different backgrounds.”
Rugwizangoga became a nurse on Tower 4 after graduating in 2005. “It’s an amazing place,” she said. “I love it here.”
BWH Nurse asked Rugwizangoga for her opinion...
...On health care challenges in Rwanda:
“There are many physical and mental health problems in Rwanda because of the genocide. The government put a focus on mental health education because so many people suffer post-traumatic stress disorder after losing their families, homes, belongings and everything.”
...On Nursing in Rwanda:
“The government upgraded nursing education in 2005, eliminating all lower level schools and creating five priority schools for nursing and midwifery. The schools opened in January 2007. Still, nurses face many challenges. Their textbooks are from the 1980s, and they do not have access to current research. Without adequate resources, medical care is limited to just a patient’s illness. At the Brigham, we have chaplains and social workers and others to help patients overcome other problems that might be related to or causing their illness. Those problems are not addressed in Rwanda.”
...On Team Heart Rwanda:
“It’s incredible what they’re doing. They’re changing lives in Rwanda, but it’s more than that. They’re making a difference in the world. This is how it starts. They should be supported in any way possible.”