The research and grants winning culture at Mbarara University of Science and Technology (MUST) has reached a higher level with 57 scholarships awarded at MUST through a new grant “the first mile” project and Kayanja Fellowship. The grant “The First mile: Powering the Academic Medical Centre to deliver Health Care in the Community in Uganda” was awarded to MUST in collaboration with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) funded by Wyss Medical Foundation. The project focuses on improving patient care through nursing and community based initiatives basing on four aims. These aims are; empowering nursing leadership to develop and implement innovative models of care, establish MUST as a premier academic centre focused on community based healthcare delivery research and innovation for East Africa, equip the Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital (MRRH) affiliated community health facilities to better understand and meet the burden of disease and leverage technology innovation and co-creation to support patients, community health workers and nurses. In implementing this project, the main stakeholders are MUST, MRRH, Community–Kasese District, MGH and Global Health Collaborative (GHC).
Under the program, MUST together with MGH provides the overall leadership and stewardship, offers support to the; MGH fellowship, the Master of Nursing Program, the UBUNTU project, Bugoye Integrated Community Case Management Initiative project in Kasese, and the CAMTech- Uganda innovations and development. MUST also supports MRRH in advancing the critical care nursing component, Master of Medicine fellowship program and equipping Natasha nutrition centre and cancer ward.
Special recognition goes to Prof. Celestino Obua the Vice Chancellor MUST for his tireless efforts in developing the grant together with Pat Daoust, Director Nursing MGH and all members of the writing team. MUST has witnessed great strides in grants winning and research development under the leadership of Prof. Obua. The new scholarships to such a huge number of students in the disciplines of medicine, nursing, public health, medical laboratory science and biochemistry is a great capacity building strategy for MUST in the medical discipline. Succeed we MUST!