Background: Nurse leaders are essential contributors to global health and health care delivery systems. Developing and strengthening nurse leader capacity enhances quality care and improves patient outcomes so no one is left behind. Low workforce capacity leads to poor health outcomes for patients. Collaborations between institutions have been shown to strengthen nurse capacity in resource-limited countries and supplement the brain drain phenomenon. This discursive paper aims to share lessons learned from implementing a graduate nursing program to develop leadership capacity in a resourcelimited country and to discuss strategies to enhance partnerships, influence health policies, and improve global health care. Materials and Method: Develop nurse leadership capacity through a graduate nursing program. Results: To date, 51 students have been enrolled and 16 have successfully completed the master's program with thesis. Most of the graduates now hold top management positions ranging from middle to senior management. These nurse leaders are in charge of operations and management, programming and policy implementation. Contributions of the program is demonstrated in changes in leadership capacity exemplified in marked infrastructural and process changes in the National Association of Gambian Nurses through increased nurse involvement at the Ministry of Health level, and enthusiasm and commitment to quality care for patients. Conclusions: Efforts to strengthen nurse leadership capacity through collaborations between developed and developing countries are essential to improve nurse leadership capacity, increase health policy engagement, and workforce retention. Workforce improvement and quality nursing services through these collaborations will strengthen nurse leadership and propagate positive health outcomes for patients as well as contribute to solving the brain drain in resource-limited countries.

Empowering women and the promotion of children’s health are key components of the Sustainable Development Goals targeted for achievement by 2030. The survival of young children, which depends on their nutrition, is influenced by an interaction of factors at the household level. This study aims to investigate the association between women’s empowerment and undernutrition among children under age 5 using The Gambia Demographic Health Survey (GDHS) 2019–20.Children’s undernutrition was measured with two indicators: stunting and underweight. The women’s empowerment indicators were educational status, employment, decision making, age at first sex and age at first birth, and acceptance of wife beating. StataSE software Version 17 was used for data analysis. Analyses were cluster-adjusted, sample-weighted, with confounding/moderating variables. Descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations were computed for all variables. Bivariate and multivariate analysis of the outcomes and women’s empowerment were conducted.The prevalence of stunting and underweight among the children under age 5 was 17% and 12%, respectively. The results of the multiple logistic regression show that women with no education had 51% (OR = 1.51; 95% CI = 1.11–2.07; p = 0.009), and 52% (OR = 1.52; 95% CI = 1.06–2.14; p = 0.022) greater odds of having children under age 5 who were stunted or underweight compared to those women with primary and higher level of education, respectively. Mothers with a body mass index classified as thin were associated with an increased odds of having stunted (OR = 1.44; 95% CI 1.01–2.05; p = 0.033) and underweight (OR = 1.69; 95% CI = 1.58–3.52; P < 0.001) children. In addition, women who reported accepting wife beating had 69% (OR = 1.69; 95% CI 1.22–2.35; p = 0.002) and 66% (OR = 1.66; 95% CI 1.15–2.40; p = 0.006) greater odds of having stunted and underweight children respectively compared to those who did not accept wife beating.In conclusion, the result of this study shows that women’s empowerment is associated with undernutrition among children under age 5 in The Gambia. This is suggesting that implementing policies and interventions that increase the empowerment of women will contribute to the improvement of child nutrition in the country.

The aim of the study was to assess the satisfaction of patients about the services provided at the Edward Francis Small Teaching Hospital (EFSTH) in the Gambia. A cross-sectional study design was used to evaluate how the patients view the healthcare services provided at the EFSTH. The main research question is “what is the satisfaction level of patients about the services provided at the EFSTH”. The SERVQUAL tool was used to collect data from a sample of 250 patients receiving care at the EFSTH. This sample was chosen using the systematic random sampling method. The variable of the study that were measured are satisfaction, expectations and perceptions of patients about the services they received. Data was collected from the outpatient and inpatient department of the hospital. The quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS statistical tool for descriptive statistics, mainly involving the percentages, and the results are presented in tables and charts.  The study found out that most of the patients have higher expectations and a low level of perception of the services provided at the EFSTH. There was a low level of patient satisfaction with the hospital services as only 36.8% of the patients strongly agree that they are satisfied with the hospital services provided. The findings also showed that most of the respondents regarded doctors’ services as the most important services provided at the hospital. There is only one service feature (housekeeping) with a positive quality gap score of 2.19667 indicating high quality of services and high patient satisfaction.There is a low level of patient’s satisfaction about the services provided at the EFSTH which is tied to a low level of service quality.

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Background: Empowering women and the promotion of children’s health are key components of the Sustainable Development Goals targeted for achievement by 2030. The survival of young children, which depends on their nutrition, is influenced by an interaction of factors at the household level. This study aims to investigate the association between women’s empowerment and undernutrition among children under age 5 using The Gambia Demographic Health Survey (GDHS) 2019–20. Children’s undernutrition was measured with two indicators: stunting and underweight. The women’s empowerment indicators were educational status, employment, decision making, age at first sex and birth, and acceptance of wife beating. StataSE software Version 17 was used for data analysis. Analyses were cluster-adjusted, sample-weighted, with confounding/moderating variables. Descriptive statistics and cross-tabulations were computed for all variables. Bivariate and multivariate analysis of the outcomes and women’s empowerment were conducted. The prevalence of stunting and underweight among the children under age 5 was 17% and 12%, respectively. The results of the multiple logistic regression show that women with no education had 51% (OR = 1.51; 95% CI = 1.11–2.07; p = 0.009), and 52% (OR = 1.52; 95% CI = 1.06–2.14; p = 0.022) greater odds of having children under age 5 who were stunted or underweight compared to those women with primary and higher level of education, respectively. Mothers with a body mass index classified as thin were associated with an increased odds of having stunted (OR = 1.44; 95% CI 1.01–2.05; p = 0.033) and underweight (OR = 1.69; 95% CI = 1.58–3.52; P<0.001) children. In addition, women who reported accepting wife beating had 69% (OR = 1.69; 95% CI 1.22–2.35; p = 0.002) and 66% (OR = 1.66; 95% CI 1.15–2.40; p = 0.006) greater odds of having stunted and underweight children respectively, compared to those who did not accept wife beating. Similarly, women from households with a wealth index classified as poor had 69% (OR = 1.69; 95% CI 1.03–2.80; p = 0.038) and 83% % (OR = 1.83; 95% CI 1.18–2.83; p = 0.007) greater odds of having underweight and stunting children compared to those from households with middle or rich wealth index.