- In the ever-evolving world of healthcare, passionate and dedicated educators like Oluwabusolami Esther Atekoja play a pivotal role. As the Head of Department (HOD) of Nursing at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Sagamu Campus, Dr. Atekoja brings not only her expertise but also a deep-seated love for imparting knowledge and shaping the future of nursing.
Can you please introduce yourself to us?
My name is Oluwabusolami Esther Atekoja. I am the Head of Department (HoD), Department of Nursing, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Sagamu Campus. I’m someone who loves lecturing and impacting knowledge.
Can you tell us about your childhood; and your experiences at an early age that shaped you into the woman you are today?
Going down memory lane, I would say everywhere I’ve been to had one or two experiences. The experience I would say had a great impact and had shaped me into the woman I am today is the kind of relationship and interactive sessions I enjoyed with my grandmother. She happens to be someone who instilled discipline and some training in me that has defined who I am today. She is a core Yoruba woman who has a lot of adages and experiences; who later died in year 2012.
What made you study Nursing, why Nursing?
Great question! From time, I wanted to study a course that would make me care for people. During my career program in my secondary school, my teachers said I would be going to science class if that was the path I wanted. I did but I struggled with “phychembio” (physics, chemistry and biology) and I didn’t think I’d survive the senior secondary school. Then after secondary school, I was contemplating what to study. The idea of going to school of nursing came up, but I didn’t really want to. My mum happens to be a nurse, but I said I wasn’t interested in going for nursing, especially because I didn’t want to go from home to school. I eventually gained admission and the whole journey started. I started from the school of nursing. Studying nursing helps fulfill my love to care for people, rendering my own little role in caring for the needy and the sick, helping them recover and be in good health.
Tell us about your education in Nursing, what qualifications do you have and which institutions did you acquire them at?
Like I said earlier, I started my nursing journey from Ogun State School of Nursing, Ijebu-ode from 2003 to 2006 and when I was done with that, the whole family insisted that I went for midwifery because I was still young. But, I told them I didn’t want to go for midwifery and wanted to go to university. The family told me there was no funds to support going to the university. I was left alone and had to seek admission at Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomosho. I was journeying from Abeokuta to Ogbomosho; and going from one office to another. To God be the glory, I finally got into the university to study nursing from 2007 to 2011, though the session spanned to 2012. During the course of my BNSc, I also became a registered midwife and public health nurse. In 2014, I got admission to the University of Lagos to study Public Health/ Epidemiology option that lasted till 2016. And by 2020, I got admitted to Babcock University, Ilisan-Remo, Ogun state for my PhD in Nursing for community health specialization and I was done with that 2023. I also got a professional diploma in education while studying for my PhD program in the university as part time degree program which started in the year 2022. I am glad to say I am a registered teacher with TRCN Nigeria and I am hoping to get more because I love to acquire more insights and have more knowledge to make me grow and be a better person.
Why did you decide to go into academics instead of staying in clinical practice, what prompted it?
While I was in the school of nursing between 2003 and 2006, I discovered I had this passion for teaching because I belonged to a club called the Zealot club. Then, we trained the younger nursing students during the evening hours on some days during the week on some core nursing courses. While in the club, I discovered the passion and I enjoyed it but didn’t know how to go about it. When I got to LAUTECH, I discovered I loved explaining to students and it helped me in remembering better. But there was no mentor to guide me on what I wanted to do. I practiced for 12 years, although I wanted to lecture but didn’t know how to go about it until I met someone who I will call Messiah. She guided my decisions and also told me of the department of nursing, Olabisi Onabanjo University and I was given an appointment as a lecturer in the year 2019. Although, clinical practice is also good and it’s something I enjoy and my patients enjoy too. I enjoyed it because it is hands on; you care for people and you see the result but lecturing is what I love. I discovered there was that trait in me that was activated in nursing school, all thanks to Zealot club.
What’s your favourite part about being a lecturer?
Lecturing me means impacting knowledge and molding the lives of students both academically and morally. The climax is when the students barge their degree and other professional qualifications.
Tell us about the challenges you’ve experienced in an academic setting, especially as the Head of the Department of Nursing Science?
There is no role in life that doesn’t come with challenges. In academics, the challenge is understanding the roles of being a lecturer and also understanding the responsibilities that comes with it. Lecturing job is not limited to the four walls of the classroom or offices, the job continues even at the lecturer’s home work. The other challenge is motivating that says, you publish or you perish, which means you publish papers on research that have been conducted and if not the individual will perish, perishing in that context means that such lecturers will be static with no growth (level, financially, and visibility amongst the academic community). However,the situation in our country is not a hundred percent favorable due to the unavailability of some amenities, such as electricity because a study cannot be conducted without electricity. Thus, getting respondents and other socioeconomic conditions frustrate the research process.Being the Head of Department, it is not easy to control or be in charge of different categories of people with personality traits, but with God by my side, He is making things work out well. The scripture says we should trust God in solving some burdens we may carry, challenges are bound to happen but for God’s intervention
How has it been juggling your duties at home and at work?
That’s a big one. This is something we call role conflict. In life, when an individual has several roles or responsibilities, there is no way one won’t conflict the other. There is bound to be a role conflicting, but with good time management; I am able to allot time to what I am doing, including schedules, deadlines both at work and also at home. I have three lovely kids so I give them time to care for them. When I get home from work, I deactivate work mode and reactivate home mode till around 10 P.M or 11 P.M when everyone at home is asleep, I reactivate the work (administrative) mode and I go to sleep after I’m done.
What do you do in your free time? How do you unwind and relax?
Unwinding and relaxation is something very important to life. I can’t be reading at my leisure time, it would bore me out. I have a lot of subscriptions on my phone such as PrimeTV, Netflix and others so I watch movies. I also follow trends on social media to be informed on what is going on in the world. I also go out with the family to relax, I visit relatives and most importantly at my leisure I go shopping because I love shopping (I love bargaining a lot). I spend time doing it and it helps me cool down.
Do you have any plans to migrate to a foreign country?
There is time for everything. There is time to plant and there is time for harvest. Change is something that is constant. Migrating out of Nigeria is based on timing. Leaving the country is something that can happen.Travelling out of the country is trendy now and people go out for different reasons. So, if I will be going, I will have my own reasons and I also depend on God’s directives. So, when God says yes, then I move. There are many things happening outside the country, such as research opportunities, postdoctoral fellowship and others. Migrating outside the country is something that is good, to go explore and have enough ground to enjoy academics in nursing, meet researchers, connect with more scholars.
If not Nursing, what profession would you have gone for?
If not nursing, I would go into mass communication.
What advice would you give to a Nursing Student who wants to venture into academics?
Number one, have a mentor that will lay the ground for you. I made a statement earlier you publish or you perish. The individual going into academics will ride on the back of the mentor in order to be able to understand what publishing means, how to write and research, and how to publish. Also, if you’re going into academics, you should start early to add more post graduate qualifications. The climax is PhD because without PhD, the person will be stuck at some point in time. I know people who knew they would go into academics early on, so they’ve had mentors, bagged their PhDs and have published lots of papers. I would proudly say in my undergraduate days, my supervisor ensured my research was published. Even though I didn’t understand the whole process then
Send a message to the young nursing students and nurses out there who see you as a role model.
To the young nurses out there, to those who see me as a role model, I will advise that you put God first, and also to see that being a nurse is more than just a profession that is lucrative. It is a profession where you get to continue the work God has started at creation and the love of God for humans. A nursing leader once defined nursing as a divine calling be it clinicals or academics. So, I will advise that people should work with that mindset. This country may not be too good in enjoying nursing profession based on the limited manpower, resources, materials, equipment, instruments to use. But with dedication and always putting God first, the sky is the starting point. And I would also advise that such people should maintain their integrity and should be disciplined. These two things will pave the way and make way for them in years to come.
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