Nurse Shanti Lakra from India Selected as a Finalist for the Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award 2023

• The general public voting system is now open to select the winner of the 2023 Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award

• 10 finalist nurses have been selected from more than 52,000 entries from 202 countries

• The grand winner will be awarded $250,000 at the ceremony in London, to be held on International Nurses Day (12 May 2023)

• Two Indian Nurses, Shanti Teresa Lakra from Port Blair and Jincy Jerry based in Ireland, are among the top 10 finalists

• Public Voting link – www.asterguardians.com/top-10-finalists-2023/#

The voting system is now open for the public to cast their votes for the 2023 Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award and select a grand winner.

Indian Nurses Shanti Lakra and Jincy Jerry among top 10 finalists for 2023 Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award; Public voting open for $250,000 winner

Last week, it was announced that Indian nurses, Shanti Teresa Lakra and Jincy Jerry, has been selected as finalists, joining another eight who were chosen from more than 52,000 entries from 202 countries.

Working amongst Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands of India, Shanti Teresa Lakra is deeply committed to serving the people there and ensuring that adverse health conditions should not lead to their extinction.

Following the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, which resulted in the tribe moving deep into the jungle, Shanti was perseverant and made her home with them, living in an open tent.

Meanwhile, Indian nurse Jincy Jerry moved to Dublin, Ireland, to study in 2006 and has since remained there to work as a nurse.

The challenges faced by Ireland’s healthcare infrastructure during the COVID-19 pandemic pushed her to learn and implement solutions to fulfil repetitive, high-volume tasks. These solutions contributed to enhanced coordination, better workforce management, systematic practices, and a lower burnout rate among the staff.

She will now join the other nine finalists and face a public voting process, followed by final evaluation by the Grand Jury judging panel. The ceremony will take place on Friday 12^th May – International Nurses Day – with the award winner set to receive US $250,000 in prize money.

Speaking on this, Dr. Azad Moopen, Founder Chairman and Managing Director of Aster DM Healthcare said, “Millions of nurses across the world are working hard every single day to serve their patients and form the core of the healthcare ecosystem. Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award is our way of acknowledging their dedication and recognizing their work. This year, with more than 50,000 nurses vying for the coveted award, it has been a hard task for the eminent Jury members to shortlist the top 10 outstanding nurses. Each of the finalists have a remarkable trajectory and have made significant contribution to the field of nursing. We wish each of them all the very best.”

Public Voting link – www.asterguardians.com/top-10-finalists-2023/#

Finalists

Shanti Teresa Lakra, G.B. Pant Hospital-Port Blair (India)

Working with Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands of India, Shanti is deeply committed to ensuring that adverse health conditions should not lead to their extinction.

These tribals are not well-informed about medical procedures and face a language barrier when visiting medical institutions. Shanti spent time at their settlement so that she could make them comfortable. In 2004 when the Indian Ocean tsunami swallowed the Ongee island habitat and drove the tribe deep into the jungle, Shanti was perseverant and made her home with them and lived in an open tent.

She has received several awards, such as the National Florence Nightingale Award in 2010, the Indian Red Cross Society’s Best Volunteer award, and the Best Health Worker Award in 2011. The Government of India honored Shanti Lakra in 2011 with the fourth- highest civilian award of Padma Shri for her incredible service.

Jincy Jerry, The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (Ireland)

Currently serving as the Assistant Director of Nursing for Infection Prevention and Control, Jincy believes that innovation is a key way to increase healthcare quality and patient safety, and has developed digital, device, and service innovations.

The challenges faced by Ireland’s healthcare infrastructure during the Covid-19 pandemic pushed her to learn and implement these solutions to fulfil repetitive, high-volume tasks. These solutions contributed to enhanced coordination, better workforce management, systematic practices, and a lower burnout rate among the staff.

To cut down on the potential for human error while collating results from laboratories, she also designed an appropriate software solution. Jincy is the recipient of the Prix Hubert Tuor Innovation Academy Award in 2021, supported by the WHO. The RPA project also won recognition for Best Use of Information Technology at the 2020 Irish Healthcare Awards.

Last Year’s Winner Was From Kenya, Africa

Anna Qabale Duba was the first graduate from her village and the only educated child in her family. During her nursing studies, she won the Miss Tourism Kenya 2013. She used her influence to advocate for gender equality and education in her community. Under the Qabale Duba Foundation, she built a school in her village where children could study in the morning and adults in the afternoon. She chose education because she understood that illiteracy held people back from learning new things and changing harmful cultural norms.

Apart from learning to read and write, women at the school learned about the importance of antenatal care, skilled deliveries, and Sexual Reproductive Health & Rights. These initiatives got recognition locally and internationally, including winning the Waislitz Global Citizen’s Choice award of $50,000 in 2019. Additionally, the results from this noble endeavour were quite evident. Female genital mutilations and early marriage had reduced tremendously. The largely pastoral community opened-up to women giving birth in hospitals. More mothers started sending their daughters to school.

Nurse Qabale made tangible transformations in her home community, across multiple dimensions of society. Now, the success of her actions is inspiring other people to follow suit.

About Aster DM Healthcare

Aster DM Healthcare Limited is one of the largest private healthcare service providers operating in GCC and in India. With an inherent emphasis on clinical excellence, we are one of the few entities in the world with a strong presence across primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary healthcare through our 30 hospitals, 125 clinics, 496* pharmacies, 20 labs and 157 patient experience centers in seven countries, including India.

We have over 29,108 plus dedicated staff including 3,820 doctors and 8,299 nurses across the geographies that we are present in, delivering a simple yet strong promise to our different stakeholders: “We’ll treat you well.” We reach out to all economic segments in the GCC states through our differentiated healthcare services across the “Aster”, “Medcare” and “Access” brands. www.asterguardians.com.

* Including 239 Pharmacies in India operated by Alfaone Retail Pharmacies Private Limited under brand license from Aster.