“I want to be the gardener, to walk my patient through the whole pregnancy and not just pregnancy, to protect and watch them grow.”

Xuyan Shi practiced as a nurse and a midwife in China for over twelve years before entering the nurse-midwifery program at the University of Michigan in 2022. She is the 2023 recipient of the Gateways Fellows Scholarship from the U-M School of Nursing (UMSN) and of the 2023 Midwives of Color – Watson Midwifery Student Scholarship from the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

The fellowship that Xuyan has earned from CEW+ will be used to fund a clinical immersion midwifery program in northern Uganda. This is an annual program led by Dr. Ruth Zielinski, Clinical Professor of Nursing and Midwifery Graduate Program Lead in the UMSN. After a three-year hiatus due to the pandemic, the program resumed in 2023, targeting Olua and Mungula refugee settlements in Northern Uganda, along with Adjumani hospital. These areas face significant healthcare challenges, particularly in women and newborn healthcare. The program aims to address this by providing picture-based doula training to women in the community, empowering them with the necessary skills for better labor support. As the program continues to make a positive change in the region, nursing midwifery students from UMSN like Xuyan eagerly anticipate the opportunity to contribute to improving women and newborn health in this area through evidence-based practice and resourceful healthcare approaches.

The clinical immersion experience will enrich Xuyan’s ongoing education in every stage of maternity: prenatal, postpartum, and women’s healthcare generally. Xuyan writes, “I don’t want to be the one who only catches babies in the labor room as a final reaper, as I did in China. I want to be the gardener, to walk my patient through the whole pregnancy and not just pregnancy, to protect and watch them grow.”

CEW+ celebrates Xuyan’s dedication to women’s health and names her a Simson Family Graduate Fellow.