Munisa Sidykova, senior nurse in a health centre in Dushanbe, Tajikistan

"As a Senior Nurse my duties include managing the senior and middle health personnel, and supply of medicines to the hospital from the pharmacies with which we have supply agreements.

The challenges in my job are mostly financial. The greatest joy is when patients leave our hospital satisfied and in a good mood. Patients often say thank you; they like the quality of the services and the attitude of nurses. An individual approach to every patient makes a big difference.

I think in the health system, human resources are very important. Staff capacity has to be developed and prepared from the start at university and later with continuing education. We often conduct training for nurses on different acute diseases, such as hepatitis and malaria as well as on chlorination. I recently went on courses for health service management for infection prevention.

I would evaluate our own health system as about 2.5–2.8 based on a 1 to 5 rating, but I believe that with the availability of financial resources it is possible to strengthen the health system. Patients currently expect to get the appropriate nursing care according to what they pay. In terms of improvements here, it would really help the efficiency of our services if the health centre could be renovated as it has been 11 years since the centre opened!"