Yvette Nlyoncaba

University of Edinburgh-African Palliative Care Association Partnership

The University of Edinburgh together with the African Palliative Care Association is training health workers in palliative care in four countries in Africa.

“I have been working here at the Univeristy Teaching Hospital of Kigali (CHUK) since 2008. I became a midwife because I like the profession and want to help women who are suffering. It is challenging because we don’t always have the tools that we need and there are gaps in the provision of clinical services that our department provides. I took part in palliative care training.

The training helped me to appreciate how people with chronic disease need palliative care. Before, I didn’t look at individuals with chronic conditions from a holistic point of view.

I remember this woman who was HIV positive with cervical cancer. When she was diagnosed, she refused to acknowledge her condition on many occasions. When the palliative care team came, they provided psychological support, they worked to understand her diagnosis, to lead her to acknowledge her condition. They counselled her with coping strategies and she was discharged home with her family there to support her.