Dubai Ruler leads tributes to pioneering Emirati nurse who died at 80

Salma Al Sharhan took up nursing in the 1950s and concentrated on bringing health care to communities in remote and mountain areas.

Salma Al Sharhan, the first Emirati nurse, was a pioneer and encouraged women in Ras Al Khaimah to take up careers in nursing. Satish Kumar / The National

DUBAI // She was the first Emirati woman to take up a career in nursing more than 50 years ago, overcoming gender stereotypes to inspire a new generation of local female medical practitioners.

But on Monday morning, Salma Al Sharhan, 80, died at Obaidallah Geriatric Hospital, in Ras Al Khaimah.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, was among the first public figures to honour Ms Al Sharhan, who has been likened to Florence Nightingale for her contributions to nursing.

“Salma worked tirelessly since the 1950s to bring health care to communities in remote and mountain areas,” Sheikh Mohammed said on Twitter.

“Salma’s story is one of a great Emirati woman who dedicated her life to serving people. May Allah have mercy upon her.”

Ms Al Sharhan was born the daughter of a pearl diver, and moved to Bahrain at an early age. She went to sea with her father and two younger brothers as a teenager, trading clothing between Bahrain and Ras Al Khaimah.

She worked as a cleaner at a pharmacy in RAK in the 1950s, before becoming an apprentice to a British nurse, Ruth Ash (nee Willis).

Ms Ash taught the basics of nursing and midwifery to Ms Al Sharhan, who in turn accompanied Ms Ash to remote mountain villages in RAK to act as a translator and assistant.

She travelled on a donkey, donated by the Government, accompanied by an elderly man with a rifle.

She overcome many challenges arising from a lack of health care equipment. She once made an incubator out of a cardboard box for a premature baby whose mother died during childbirth. Ms Al Sharhan nursed the child with dates, and the man still visited her on occasion.

“Back then things were so simple and scarce,” said Fatima Al Rifai, director of nursing at the Ministry of Health.

“Her challenges were enormous. By entering nursing at that time and overcoming those challenges, she has become an inspiration for young Emirati women to enter the nursing profession.

“We look at her as a mother of nursing in this country. She is a very important figure in the history of this country.”

She has won several government awards over the years and last week it was announced that a laboratory at the Fatima College of Health Sciences in Abu Dhabi would be named after her.

Although she delivered scores of babies, Ms Al Sharhan never had children of her own. She married a man from Bahrain, but divorced after he demanded that she quit her work as a nurse.

Yasser Al Nuaimi, director of Ras Al Khaimah Medical District, said Ms Al Sharhan was a pioneer for her time.

“She had the courage and bravery to take the career as a nurse,” he said. “She was the first to break a rule, which many local ladies were avoiding.

“We look at her as a model for our national nurses. For us, she’s like a Florence Nightingale.

“She was a leader. She encouraged the national girls to also have the same courage. Because of her, I see in Ras Al Khaimah nowadays we have the highest number of local nurses in the country.

“It’s not only because there is a nursing institute in Ras Al Khaimah, but because Salma was a role model for them.”

Mr Al Nuaimi said Ms Al Sharhan had been suffering from age-related illnesses, such as dementia, for some time and had been treated in her home.

However, medical staff did the best they could to repay her for her contribution to health care in the emirate.

“Whenever she got admitted to any hospitals in Ras Al Khaimah, she was treated as a VIP,” he said.

“We were grateful for her and all doctors and nurses, everybody, showed very deep respect to her. This was the least we could do to repay her for all she had done for the emirate and the country.”