Saja Yassin: From Nursing Paperwork in Sudan to the Global Stage
04 October, 2026
Sudanese Student Wins International Research Award and Presents Digital Nursing Project at Royal College of Nursing Conference in Britain
Khartoum – Sudanow
In a country where the healthcare sector is facing mounting crises and war has placed hospitals, healthcare workers, and patients under immense pressure, a Sudanese nursing student has chosen to begin with a question that may sound simple but goes to the heart of healthcare practice: What if nursing documentation in Sudan could move from paper to digital systems in a safe, structured, and evidence-based way?
That question set Saja Yassin, a final-year nursing student at Nile University, on a journey that took her idea from a Sudanese university setting to an international research and innovation initiative, and ultimately to an international nursing research conference in Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Saja, who heads the Scientific Research and Training Office of the Nile University Students’ Association, has approached nursing as more than a clinical profession. Her interests have increasingly extended to research, digital health, nursing informatics, and professional leadership. Her challenge was to turn a problem rooted in everyday nursing practice into a research question capable of entering the international debate on the future of healthcare.
The issue she chose was nursing documentation—an aspect that may appear administrative on the surface but is directly connected to continuity of care, information-sharing among healthcare professionals, patient safety, and the quality of clinical decision-making.
From this starting point, Saja developed a project aimed at creating an evidence-based roadmap for the safe transition from paper-based to digital nursing documentation in Sudan.
But she did not present technology as a magic solution. The core of her idea was more practical: if nurses are the professionals who interact with patients and health information every day, they must play a central role in designing the digital systems and care pathways they will use.
This idea led her to the Nursing Now Challenge Global Solutions Initiative (NNCGSI), an international initiative aimed at nursing and midwifery students, nurses, and midwives at the early stages of their careers. The initiative seeks to strengthen research capacity and transform healthcare challenges into practical, evidence-based solutions.
As part of the initiative, which collaborated in this cycle with the Royal College of Nursing’s Institute for Nursing Excellence, Saja presented her research project and was selected for the Research Theme Award.
The award was not the end of the journey. It was a gateway to a larger stage.
In September 2026, Saja joined the Royal College of Nursing International Nursing Research Conference (RCN) in Glasgow, held from September 15 to 17 under the theme “Research Without Boundaries: Innovation, Collaboration and Global Impact.”
Her research moved beyond the university setting to an international audience of researchers, practitioners, and professionals engaged in shaping the future of nursing. Saja presented her winning project by video during a session alongside Professor Gemma Stacey, Director of the Nursing Now Challenge programme.
According to Nursing Now Challenge, Saja’s presentation drew attention to her ability to justify, describe, and support her research idea, as well as to her focus on involving nurses in the design of more effective digital care pathways.
But the significance of her story lies in more than reaching a British conference. It lies in the question she carried with her: How can an everyday Sudanese problem become a starting point for rethinking the future of nursing?
In modern healthcare systems, documentation is no longer simply a matter of recording notes about a patient’s condition. Information has become an integral part of care itself. Digital transformation in nursing therefore requires more than devices and software; it requires training, infrastructure, clear standards, and the meaningful involvement of healthcare professionals in designing the systems they will use.
This is precisely what gives Saja’s project significance beyond the boundaries of a research competition.
She is addressing a problem that already exists and seeking a practical pathway suited to the Sudanese context.
Saja says her experience with NNCGSI gave her the opportunity to learn from researchers and leaders in nursing. She also acknowledged her supervisor, Dr. Sintieh Ekongefeyin, for the guidance and support provided throughout the development of the project.
Yet Saja does not want the achievement to end with a certificate, an award, or a conference presentation. Her stated ambition is to take the project from paper to a practical roadmap that can support a safe transition to digital nursing documentation in Sudan.
Her story is therefore part of a larger one: the story of a generation of Sudanese young people attempting to think about rebuilding vital sectors from within a crisis.
While the world often sees Sudan through the lens of war, displacement, and the collapse of essential services, Saja’s experience offers a different image: a young Sudanese woman sitting at Nile University, identifying a problem rooted in her profession, turning it into a research project, entering an international initiative, and ultimately finding herself before a global professional institution discussing the future of nursing.
If winning the NNCGSI award represents recognition of the idea, the real challenge begins afterwards: Can the research be transformed into a practical project? And can Sudan, as it eventually moves toward rebuilding its healthcare system, make digital transformation part of rebuilding the profession itself rather than treating it as merely a technological upgrade?
For Saja, the answer begins with the nurse.
From Nile University began the journey. A question about nursing paperwork expanded into research on digital health, then to NNCGSI, and finally to the Royal College of Nursing conference in Glasgow.
It has been a relatively short journey, but one that carries a meaning larger than the award itself: a Sudanese problem can become a global question, and a student in the final year of university can stand, with a serious research idea, at the heart of the debate over the future of nursing.
Post your comments
Photo of the Week
Sudanese Student Wins International Research Award and Presents Digital Nursing Project at Royal College of Nursing Conference in Britain Khartoum – Sudanow In a country where the healthcare sector is facing mounting crises and war has placed hospitals, healthcare workers, and patients under immense pressure, a Sudanese nursing student has chosen to begin with a question ...
More-
20 September, 2026
Stories from the Heart of the Battlefield Zainab: When Staying Becomes an Act of Courage
The Courageous Zainab: A Woman Who Stayed When Everyone Left — and Returned to Bring Life Back to Wad Nubawi From a home that opened its doors to displaced families, and a garden that flourished amid fear, to the homes of those who were away and the power stations she helped restore — the story of a Sudanese woman who shows how ordinary people can perform extraordinary acts during wartime. Khartoum – (Sudanow...
Contact Us
Address: Sudan News Agency (SUNA) Building, Jamhoria Street, Khartoum - Sudan
Mobile:+249 909220011 / +249 912307547