Halala! Congratulations to Dr Beatrix Callard, who has been awarded a Doctor of Philosophy degree for her thesis entitled: How can perinatal mortality recording and reporting be optimised in the maternity departments of the Khomas region, Namibia?

“Beatrix Callard’s thesis explores opportunities for optimising existing practices around recording stillbirths and neonatal deaths at facility level and reporting these to district level. Namibia’s confidential enquiry into maternal and perinatal deaths highlighted major data discrepancies between different reporting platforms. The literature review, together with field observations, process mapping, and matching more than 7,500 birth and death events across three reporting platforms informed an optimisation strategy at one participating facility to improve the data quality of perinatal events reported upline. 

Findings suggest that staffing, skills, and systems related factors influenced the quality of recording at source. Small, but feasible changes in data capturing methods at ward level facilitate a reduction in recording errors as well as improved matching of birth and death events across all three data sets. Facility-based recording mechanisms and national data relating to perinatal mortality in Namibia must be reevaluated based on these findings.”

Dr Callard has walked quite an extensive road with the Harry Crossley Children’s Nursing Development Unit (CNDU) in the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health. To date, Dr Callard remains the only student to have completed three degrees with CNDU – a Postgraduate Diploma in Critical Care Children’s Nursing in 2012, a Master of Nursing in Child Nursing in 2018, and a PhD in 2024 - a remarkable achievement! 

As part of the CNDU Doctoral Fellowship that Dr Callard was awarded for her PhD studies, she became an integral team member. During this period, she contributed to research support of students on the Masters programme as they developed their Evidence Based Practice Guidelines, and co-led work on the Unit’s Workforce Observatory. In this Beatrix has truly come full circle, coming back to teach and co-lead a project in the Unit where she has also spent more time studying than any other student. 

Reflecting on her journey, she shared:
“A day to celebrate. A journey of love, support, friendship, family, God. Never alone! And never in my own strength! Thank you to all who contributed. A huge thank you to the HCCNDU who have walked this journey with me and supported me since 2012 when I started my PgDip. Thank you also to the MOHSS and my colleagues in Namibia, who accompanied me to where I am today.”

A special thank you also goes to Dr Callard’s supervisors, Adjunct Associate Professor N North and Professor B Morrow (Paediatrics and Child Health), whose encouragement, guidance, and support played such an important part in this achievement.

Dr Callard now continues to shape the future of children’s nursing in Windhoek, where she works in the Neonatal ICU at Windhoek Central Hospital, and serves as a part-time lecturer for the Postgraduate Diploma in Paediatrics at the International University of Management. Her achievement is not only a personal milestone, but also a source of inspiration for nurses across Namibia and beyond. Congratulations!