Nurses and midwives are vital to health care systems. This is especially true in regions with health workforce shortages, such as southeast Liberia. On a daily basis, nurses and midwives help meet patients’ everyday needs and fill in during emergency situations. Simultaneously, they train nursing students.

It was a typical morning for Gretta Joseph, deputy chief nursing officer at University Hospital of Mirebalais in Haiti. She was still at home, going through her work email and getting a sense of her schedule for the day at the hospital, when she noticed the congratulatory message informing her she had been accepted to Partners In Health’s Global Nurse Executive Fellowship.

She let out a celebratory scream, alarming her husband who rushed into the room. Soon he was joining her celebration; he knew how much she had wanted this.