Celebrating International Nurses Week and Beyond!

Photo Credits in Order of Appearance

Mary Philomena Okello, clinical nursing officer at Lira Regional Referral Hospital in Lira, Uganda, stands outside the ward. She not only cares for patients in the hospital, but she rides her motorcycle to 'the field' to make home visits. "I love palliative care," she says. "In palliative care there is no pretense. You tell the truth to the patient and their families. It is not easy to know that you’re dying. I can speak the truth and give hope and prepare them to die in a peaceful way." According to 'Philo,' she is the only palliative care nurse in the entire district. "Many people are dying without palliative care," she explains. "They are dying in pain. I need more people trained." © 2009 Carol Bales/IntraHealth International, Courtesy of Photoshare: ID: 8896-1.

A nurse attends to a patient at the Methodist clinic in the remote village of Kopanga, Kenya. The clinic receives support from mission giving of United Methodist Women. © 2007 Paul Jeffrey, for a 2009 Photoshare Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare: ID: 2009-840.

A nurse administers a prenatal exam at a family planning center in Taza, Morocco. © 1992 Lauren Goodsmith, Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 2850-42.

A pregnant woman attends a prenatal clinic where a nurse/educator asks her questions at the St Boniface Hospital in Fond des Blancs, Haiti. © 2009 Paul Jeffrey for the 2009 Photoshare Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 2009-841.

2009 Photoshare Photo Contest | HIFA2015 Photography Award! A woman, pregnant with her fifth child, listens as a volunteer health worker tells her about sanitation, health and the preparation for delivery in Nepal. Photographer's Notes: "Sita Yadav, one of 50,000 female health volunteers trained in Nepal by USAID programs, turns the pages of a display book to show the pregnant woman how to assure a healthy delivery and healthy infant.” © 2009 Ben Barber, Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 209-1118.

A nurse conducts prenatal counseling in Bangladesh. © 2007 Abebual Zerihun, for the 2007 Photoshare Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare: ID: 2007-362. A nurse with the NGO ‘Doctors of the World’ performs a gynecological examination on a woman in La Tinta, Guatemala. © 2006 Javier Arcenillas/GEAPHOTOWORDS for the 2012 Photoshare Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare: ID: 7917-9.

An auxiliary nurse and midwife (ANM) provides health services to a pregnant woman in Rajasthan, India. The ANM lives in a room above the health center of the tiny village so she is available at all hours to attend to those who need her help. © 2009 RN Mittal/UNFPA, Courtesy of Photoshare: ID: 2009-750.

A nurse checks a pregnant woman at a clinic in Pere Payen, Haiti supported by Action by Churches Together (ACT) International. Even before the infamous 2010 earthquake, the health care system in Haiti, much of it run by private groups, faced critical shortages in the wake of political conflict that led to the ousting of President Jean Bertrand Aristide. © 2004 Paul Jeffrey for the 2006 Photoshare Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare: ID: 2006-21.

A woman gives birth with the assistance of a nurse/midwife in "Umut Hep Vardi" ("Hope was Always There"), a three-part series about a young midwife in Turkey who travels to a mountain village to provide health and family planning services. She must deal with the suspicion and mistrust from the villagers, but is supported in her work by a local doctor and in her dealings with the community by her sled driver. Both men fall in love with her. She eventually overcomes the resistance of the villagers to learn about family planning, and she must choose between her two suitors. © 1991 Center for Communication Programs, Courtesy of Photoshare: ID: 7-96.

A traditional birth attendant and a community health nurse display a newborn baby girl they delivered at a community health compound in Abura Dunkwa, capital of Ghana's Abura-Asebu-Kwamankese district. Traditional attendants and nurses collaborate in order to improve the quality of health services to rural populations. © 2006 Niagia Santuah, 2006 Photoshare Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare: ID: 2006-50.

A nurse weighs a newborn child at a sub-health center in Guna district, Madhya Pradesh, India. © 2010 Anil Gulati, for the 2012 Photoshare Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare: 1475-867.

A female health worker measures a newborn in a Bangladeshi village. Photographer's Notes: "It was hotter than hell in the Bangladeshi village where I was visiting. On the way into this room, I passed two cows, a whole runaway class of schoolchildren including three kids ostensibly crippled by polio, an outdoor shower, and two above-ground domed graves. It was not uncommon in this village to be born and die in the same small space. I was accompanying a Shasthya (female health worker) who was paid less than one dollar per day to provide community-based health including hygiene instructions for newborn health. It was dusty. People were sputtering, spitting, coughing, and sneezing. The cows were belching. The children were laughing. Amidst all of this was a newborn baby: fresh, quiet, and soft. Everyone washed their hands. The baby was measured. Vaccination for measles, pertussis, and Hemophilus Influenzae B of children has reached even this most remote corner of the world. Through the deliberate, organized, and widespread engagement of women in the health care work force, it is a new day in Bangladesh." © 2009 Farrah Mateen, for the 2010 World Pneumonia Day Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 5000-110.

Sister Julia, Head Nurse at PMI Pilote, attempts to feed an undernourished child at a clinic for malnourished children in Nouakchott, Mauritania. © 1991 Lauren Goodsmith, Courtesy of Photoshare: 3651-11.

A nurse in Egypt vaccinates an infant. © 2007 Omar Mohsen, Courtesy of Photoshare: 2007-452.

A male nurse attends to an ill infant in the Special Care Newborn Unit (SCNU) in Vidisha District of Madhya Pradesh, India. The unit has been set up by the state government of Madhya Pradesh under the National Rural Health Mission with technical support of UNICEF. Photographer's Notes: SCNU is helping to improve neonatal survival in the district and is important as Madhya Pradesh has high neonatal mortality rates. The state government of Madhya Pradesh has already set up many such units and plans to have one such unit in each district of the state. © 2009 Anil Gulati for the 2010 World Pneumonia Day Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 5000-66.

A nurse vaccinates a four-month-old baby outside her home near the remote village of San Pablo near Murra in the Nueva Segovia state of Nicaragua on the northern border with Honduras. Photographer's Notes: "Looking on is the mother Rosa Rizo holding Olga and extended family with her daughter Maricela Salgado Rizo (5 centre in blue) who has survived one bout of pneumonia. Pneumonia is the biggest killer of children under five in Nicaragua." © 2008 Adrian Brooks for the 2010 World Pneumonia Day Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare: ID: 5000-150.

In Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, a nurse at a family doctor's office, Consultorio #10, harvests medicinal plants in the backyard garden. © 1999 Lauren Goodsmith, Courtesy of Photoshare: ID: 2850-28.

A nurse with Plan International vaccinates a young girl at her school as her classmates look on in Altos de los Mores, Peru. Altos de los Mores is an impoverished community in Peru's northern desert near Piura. Photographer's Notes: "Several local and international organizations work with the residents on projects involving health, nutrition, education, and microfinance." © 2007 Douglas J. Klostermann, for the 2009 Photoshare Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 2009-58.

A grandmother helps attend to her granddaughter's infant in Bangladesh. This adolescent mother's infant was the first child born in the MINIMAT study cohort in Matlab, Bangladesh. Four thousand mothers were followed through their pregnancies with nutritional interventions to prevent low birth weight. © 2003 Ansem Ansari, for the 2003 Photoshare Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 2003-45.

A group of award-winning nursing and midwifery educators and student leaders from across the world share a candle-lighting ceremony as they launch the ‘Daring, Caring & Sharing to Save Mothers’ Lives’ global campaign of the Nightingale Initiative for Global Health (NIGH). The Launch began at St Bartholomew’s Church in New York City during United Nations Week, 2012. Photographers: Jen Heck and Ezra Peace. © NIGH 2012.

Girls learn how to use computers in a training mobile van parked near their homes in Guna district in Madhya Pradesh, India. The training program is supported by the NGO, ‘Great India Dream Foundation.’ © 2010 Anil Gulati, Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 330-502.

In Chittagong, Bangladesh (July 2,– 2006) US Navy Ltjg Cathrine Soteras of Long Beach, California, discuses a patients condition with ‘Operation Smile’ nurse Simran Singh of Canada, in a recovery room aboard US Naval hospital ship USNS Mercy (T-AH 19). Their patient is resting after cleft lip surgery from Operation Smile doctors who are working with Mercy personnel on the ship and at the local hospital. The ship is in the third month of a scheduled five-month deployment to host nations in the Pacific Islands, and South and Southeast Asia, after completing 24 days of humanitarian assistance to the people of the southern Philippines. The Mercy’s mission is being carried out in conjunction with nongovernmental organizations, and in close coordination and partnership with local medical care professionals. Volunteers from Project HOPE, Operation Smile and the University of California at San Diego Pre-Dental Society joined Mercy, along with a contingent of military medical specialists from the US, India, Singapore, and Canada. US Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Don Bray — released to Public Domain and accessed on Wikimedia Commons.

Elizabeth DuVerlie (R), of the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs, and Haitian secretary Dinley facilitate an Advances workshop in Haiti with the use of laptop computers. The Center for Communication Program's major international training workshop, 'Advances in Family Heath Communication,' attracts high-level program managers from many countries. Participants usually rate the workshops above 9 on a scale of 1-10. © 2001 Kim Seifert, Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 201-17.

"This is our schedule of sequences to shoot..." explains Assistant Director Avic Ilagan to a cast member of "Bawal Pumasok," a film about two couples in the Philippines and what they think about sex and relationships. They have just graduated from high school and are also celebrating Mike's birthday. One couple stays in the jeep and starts making out. The other goes off to leave them alone. Both couples wind up having sex, neither uses protection. Mike's girlfriend finds out that she is pregnant. She is placed in a home for pregnant girls. Mike finds her there and proposes. The story "rewinds" and Pam, the female from the second couple, gets pregnant this time. She is also placed in a home for girls. © 1995 Center for Communication Programs, Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 4049.22.

A local maternity nurse teaches young mothers about family planing methods in Kampala, Uganda. © 2012 Kyalie Photography for the 2012 Photoshare Photo Contest. Courtesy of Photoshare: ID: 8521-2.

Young Indian women practicing commmunity media with 'Video Volunteers', an international media and human rights NGO founded in 2003 to promote community media — enabling citizen participation in marginalized and poor communities around the world. They are learning through 'IndiaUnheard' a program constituted of a network of "community correspondents" who are stringers trained to tell stories about their own communities. 'IndiaUnheard' Community Correspondents make 3-4 min videos for which Video Volunteers pays Rs 1300 each. These videos are later shown on social networking sites and sometimes on TV which link rural communities with a truly global audience. This was Video Volunteers’ flagship Community Video Unit program, created in partnership with many of the leading NGOs in India, establishes and equips locally-operated video production units in severely media-deprived areas. By training eight to ten local Community Producers who make up each unit in all aspects of video production, this enables them to produce films that address issues relevant to their community, such as child marriage, health, temple prostitution, water, sanitation and women’s rights. Regular screenings of the films are held for hundreds of villagers in their locale, followed by solution-centric discussions that transform ideas and images into proactive measures. Accessed from Wikimedia Commons and Photographer: Bavvgagoa in 2011. Used with the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

A community worker near Jodhpur, India, helps 'Veerni Project' nurses and social workers (seated) keep track of pregnancies and malnutrition cases in her village. The Veerni Project focuses on women, girls, families and communities in the desert areas around Jodhpur, India, with medical, educational, nutrition and community development programs to bring about change in their communities. © 2006 Rose Reis, Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 176-5.

Home-based care nurse Alex Ngalande uses FrontlineSMS software on a laptop computer at St. Gabriel’s Hospital in Namitete, Malawi. FrontlineSMS: Medic is a team committed to supporting community health workers (CHWs) in the developing world using appropriate mobile technology. After almost a year of working with FrontlineSMS in Malawi, FrontlineSMS: Medic is launching to extend the capabilities of this software and bring it to health centers across several continents. © 2008 Josh Nesbit, Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 351-42.

To illustrate NIGH‘s grassroots-to-global mandate to engage and empower nurses and midwives to tell global health stories using emerging technologies, this photo has been modified to show a computer picture featuring the 'Veerni Project 'in Jodhpur, India, where nurses and social workers keep track of pregnancies and malnutrition cases in her village. Photographer of the superimposed image © 2006 Rose Reis, Courtesy of Photoshare ID: 176-5.