My rotation at the antenatal care unit - Chevening scholarship on Leadership

CHEVENING SCHOLARSHIP ESSAY

Please this is my draft for the leadership and influence. @Holt, could you please review it for me. Suggestions to improve it. Whether to use both instances or use one. I will really appreciate if you could assist me. Thank you

1. PROFESSIONAL

A major public health challenge research on XXXXXXXX, which I am the team leader, is ongoing at the XXXXXXX because of the initiative I took as an intern November last year during my rotation at the antenatal care unit. I realized the scarcity of research on XXXXXX after been given a rough estimate that an average of 4 pregnant women died during labour every month yet without any substantive evidence. My previous year experience in research spurred me to carry out this research to contribute to knowledge in the facility, inform stakeholders and policy makers to implement strategies to reduce the maternal deaths to the barest minimum.

I informed and inspired my colleague research assistants to form a research team to investigate the situation. I wrote a proposal and sought the necessary consent from the appropriate bodies until this project was finally approved. As the team leader, I assigned tasks and part of my duties were to review XXXXX of maternal outcomes in the past 2 years. I found that 8 in every 100 patients died after delivery because of excessive bleeding and that was mainly due to late access to safe blood or blood products and previous history of bleeding disorders. This was a serious health challenge that needed immediate clinical attention. I met with the team, we deliberated on the finding, and I was able to resolve all conflicting issues on the inferences and recommendations raised until we all came to a consensus. On behalf of my team, I presented the findings to the lab in-charge, and suggested recommendations to improve the outcome. He took it up to the medical board and the team subsequently reached the stake holders and policy makers to implement effective strategies.

Consequently, a periodic 3 months blood donation and free screening exercise for university students with partner NGO bodies including.............. has been initiated. The facility now has enough blood to store for emergency transfusion situations and also to donate to neighbour hospitals due to its short half-life. Maternal mortality due to excessive bleeding has dropped from the estimated average 4 to 1 per month, representing a 75% reduction. Bleeding disorders has now also been included as part of their routine examinations to prevent high risk individuals from excessive bleeding after labour.

This has been a trailblazer in the facility and I currently lead a team to follow up women from the time of pregnancy to delivery to monitor the outcome of delivery and associated risks for maternal mortality.

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