 Since the 1950s, thousands of South Asian leaders have seized the opportunity to further their knowledge at Australian universities through prestigious Australia Awards scholarships. Their new knowledge and skills are improving countless lives in their home countries. I love nursing and I love knowledge also. I want to develop that in my students. Eid Fatima, when she returned from her master's studies at Monash University under an Australia Awards scholarship, she became instrumental in setting up the Maldives' first ever Bachelor of Nursing course. Through the Bachelor of Nursing programme, we are hoping that we can provide higher quality of nursing throughout the different areas in Maldives, not only here in Malay, but in the atolls. My home island is Lavin Hinnor. There we have lots of houses, few trees and lots of people. We have one health centre where we can get vaccinations. If an emergency case comes, for example, a person with shortness of breath or with the pain in the chest, they will provide with facilities like they can take ECG or they can provide oxygen supplies and they will refer the patient immediately to the nearest hospital. If the patients or anyone from our island has to travel to other islands, they have to take a boat. It takes about 7 to 8 hours by boat to reach Malay. Most of the time they travel at night. My own grandfather was a Bedridden patient and he was Bedridden for about 2 years and he was taken care by my own mother and father. I wonder always, why is he Bedridden? Why can't he walk and how can he be treated? Later on, first of all he was not able to walk so he was lying on the bed but he can take food orally. But later on he was not able to take food and he was given only liquid diet. So I was wondering what will be done if we were abroad, I mean if we were in Malay or some other places where we get good facilities. What will be the nursing care? What will be the care given by the professionals? So I wanted to know how to give care to the Bedridden patients, how to give care to the geriatric patients. That was the inspiration for me to become a nurse. During my master's program in Australia I got knowledge regarding different instructional techniques and different assessments we can do for nursing students. And also how to build that relationship between my students and me. In our culture that relationship can be a bit distant than in other western Australian or other cultures. So from there I learned how important it is to have a good friendly relationship with the students. Drawing on what she learned and the Bachelor of Nursing curriculum used by Monash University, Fatima worked with her colleagues to draft the Maldives first ever such course. This means that young people like Huna can now study a higher level of nursing without the expense and difficulties of going abroad. The role of Bachelor of Nursing in improving healthcare will be, I believe, mainly in health promotion and health prevention area. They will have increased knowledge of health assessment. So when they go and assess patients they should be able to identify those who will need a higher level of care so they can be referred earlier instead of waiting until the last month. I would go back to my island and apply the knowledge I have learned here. Like giving awareness to the geriatric patients' relatives so that they can stay at home and give care to the patients. I know there are less facilities in our island but I can give awareness so that they can take care of themselves. And I think that the biggest reward is yet to come to see better nursing care all over the country. Thanks in part to her Australia Award scholarship, Fatima and her colleagues are now working on a national master's course to help improve health services even further. Scores of students like Huna will graduate soon as the Maldives first home-trained Bachelor level nurses.