AKUSONAM: Transforming Nursing Education and Research – A Legacy of Knowledge and Leadership

 By: Shabir Hussain Jhatial
PRN BScN -1995 Alumni
Principal CON Korangi
Ex.Director Nursing Sindh

Though I am a prolific writer and commentator of professional events and free lancer yet when it comes to writing about AKUSONAM, it stirs deeper levels of consciousness to be cautious when it comes my Alma Mater Aga Khan School of Nursing & Midwifery(AKUSONAM) For me it is the "Zero Point" that refers to a scale from which strengths and weakness in quality can be measured and compared with. Or it is like a Qibla (in a literary sense) of Nursing & Midwifery with which institutes across the country and region set the directions to pursue excellence in their own adaptive ways.

A few days ago I witnessed student-led /organized SPIRIT-24 Research Symposium in jam-packed AKUH' Central Auditorium with faculty and AI Generation Nursing Scholars. This was simply a majestic academia congregation blended with three majestic civilizations of Greek-Roman, Arab-Persian and the Indus tradition of knowledge, wisdom, architecture among the glittering stars in making to enlighten new horizons. The AKUSONAM has travelled a long way from consuming the best to generating the new knowledge. The mega symposium is just a single anecdote of this great Carvan.

My subconscious still echoes with His Highness majestic voice when he visualized AKUSONAM students & graduates as Ambassadors of Knowledge, Research and Service while inaugurating it some 50 years ago. 

Verily, the AKUSONAM graduates now spread the light in every corner of Pakistan and beyond. Its alumni graduates are serving and leading across six continents. So much so that out of 43 world nursing leaders declared eight are Alumni of AKUSONAM. The achievements are countless to be encompassed here. Yet a single sentence could give a glimpse of a larger picture - that nursing leaders produced from AKUSONAM are the only professionals that are exporting the soft image of Pakistan at this critical juncture of our history.

The SPIRIT-24 was simply a blissful reflection of the AKUSONAM's impeccable traditions that seemed enlightening generations of our motherland and across the globe more robustly as time goes by.

The symposium began with a serene presentation by Associate Dean Dr. Laila Ladak who encompassed the Spirit evolution from 2022 to 2024 and that is how this knowledge generation reached this climax event so far that 270 Abstracts were received from across the country and beyond. And that is how this Spirit Travelled to more than 40 institutes and many pre conference sessions throughout the year. Dr. Ladak acknowledged almost a dozen committees of academia, administration and media that brought this event as another milestone in pursuit of Research, Truth and Attainment. 

The speeches and presence of President AKUH Shahabuddin Suleman, the Dean Salima Wallani and the respectful AKU Robes complemented the significance of the symposium. The superb operation of the event will remain memories of those present there and those watched it live for a long time to come.

The glittering audience included the AKUSONAM robes, the under graduate, Masters, Ph D students and ambassador Alumni leading the profession beyond AKUSONAM and many institutes and individuals from across the board. Together all this served as a rich experience to witness the AKUSONAM Carvan led by the unending blaze of stars being consistently produced by our world classy institution who has now become a great movement itself enlightening the spirit of people and the state of Pakistan in the global community.