Zairemthiama in Chikankata: nurses

Of all the many interesting events that Chikankata used to witness each year, Nurses' Graduation Day has always been the happiest and also the most emotional day of the year. It is the occasion when Chikankata, if anything of such word as pride is acceptable to use, can take pride in itself. Because in the current situation where shortages of health professionals, nurses in particular, is distressingly acute nationwide, Chikankata Nursing Training School is one of the few training institutions in Zambia that produces highly motivated nurses each year. And the institution is growing everyday in terms of infrastructure development, its increasing capacity of student intake, and quality learning and training. It has been recently upgraded, from its previous status of ‘enrolled’ nurse training school, to ‘registered’ nurse training school. This means our alumni nurses can now practise their skills anywhere around the globe. The school also trains midwives. The first batch of the registered nurses recently graduated at the end of last year 2009. Here are some of the graduation photos.

Our proud first batch of 'registered' nurses who graduated last year. Historically speaking, however, the first students graduated from Chikankata Nursing Training School in 1950. Since then the school has gone through many changes, new programmes have been introduced to replace old ones. Thousands of nurses have graduated from Chikankata over the years.

Here are some of the teaching faculties in their academic gowns.

This time there are 50 students who worked hard towards passing the three year course for registered nurses, and finally graduated. The number of student intake this year in 2010 has now increased to more than 70. The academic level required for entry to the course is a pass in the Grade 12 examination.