Basnama (48), from Pakistan, is completing her doctorate in nursing at the Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing at the University of Toronto. Her study analyzes the human resources for health policy in Afghanistan, which capitalized on promoting women in the workforce to meet the needs of women, who are permitted to receive care only from female healthcare providers. Basnama aims to account for the difference between women’s participation as midwives, nurses, and physicians.

Basnama is an accomplished and ambitious nurse. She is the first from her province (Gilgit-Baltistan) to receive a master’s in nursing and pursue a PhD. Before commencing her PhD, Basnama worked for six years as Manager, Training and Policy, with the Aga Khan University (AKU) Academic Projects Afghanistan, supporting the Ministry of Public Health to revise and implement its nursing curriculum, standards, and policies.

Generally one of few women in the room, Basnama is a trailblazer. While she will be the first woman from Gilgit-Baltistan with a PhD in nursing, her commitment to women’s access to healthcare and nursing education suggests she won’t be the last.

Her immediate career goal is to continue to work for AKU on its Afghanistan project, and in the long term her dream is to establish a nursing school in northern Pakistan. With this school, nursing candidates would no longer have to be uproot from their communities and relocate to distant Karachi to become much-needed nurses.