Nursing

From a recent edition of the Gulf Times, which is an English-language newspaper here in Qatar is a brief about UC-Q's new acting associate dean academic, Dr. Marlene Smadu.
New Acting Associate Dean at UCQ
Dr. Marlene Smadu has been appointed the acting associate dean at the University of Calgary-Qatar. Dr Smadu agreed to take up the second highest position at UCQ at the request of interim dean & CEO, Dr Sheila Evans.“I value Marlene’s experience as a nurse, as an academic and as a nursing leader. I know she will be a tremendous asset to our organisation,” Dr Evans said.Dr Smadu arrived in Qatar only two weeks ago to help establish official registration credentials for UCQ graduates and accreditation for UCQ. She is on administrative leave from the University of Saskatchewan, Canada where she serves as associate dean for the College of Nursing in Regina. Dr Smadu is also the past president of the Canadian Nurses Association.
On the same page as Dr. Smadu's announcement was a rather large ad:

URGENTLY REQUIRED
NURSES
2 years experience
Good looking
Smart/active
Single preferred
Working hours: split shift

Please send your CV along with a recent photo to ...

For a variety of reasons it is difficult to promote nursing education in the Gulf (Could ads like the above have anything to do with that???) and UC-Q has its work cut out to prepare, promote, and develop a local nursing workforce, especially if Qatar wants to position itself as a leader in health care delivery. Around the world, nurses are striving to prove themselves and be recognized as highly-trained health care practitioners who use evidence-based practice to provide the best quality care for their patients, so ads like the above are rather disheartening, to say the least.
And yet, nursing has a long and honourable history in the Muslim world. Consider Rufaidah bint Sa'ad founder of the nursing profession in Islam. This brief bio is from http://www.nurses.info/personalities_rufaidah.htm
Rufaidah bint Sa'ad, is recognized as the first Muslim nurse. Her full name was Rufaidah bint Sa'ad of the Bani Aslam tribe of the Khazraj tribal confederation in Madinah. She was born in Yathrib before the migration of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). She was among the first people in Madina to accept Islam and was one of the Ansar women who welcomed the Prophet on arrival in Madina.
Rufaidah's father was a physician. She learned medical care by working as his assistant. Her history illustrates all the attributes expected of a good nurse. She was kind and empathetic. She was a capable leader and organizer, able to mobilize and get others to produce good work. She had clinical skills that she shared with the other nurses whom she trained and worked with. She did not confine her nursing to the clinical situation. She went out to the community and tried to solve the social problems that lead to disease. She was both a public health nurse and a social worker.
Information by Prof. Dr. Omar Hasan Kasule, Sr. from a Paper Presented at the 3rd International Nursing Conference "Empowerment and Health: An Agenda for Nurses in the 21st Century" held in Brunei Dar as Salam 1st-4th November 1998

And yet, the burning question remains ... was she good-looking?