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Draft:Shela Hirani

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Shela Hirani (born November 19) is a Canadian nursing professor who works at the University of Regina, Canada..[1]. Born and raised in Pakistan, Dr Shela Hirani is a neonatal and child health nursing professional, academician, researcher, lactation consultant, and an advocate of baby-friendly initiatives. She is a Vanier Scholar and Killam Laureate who earned her PhD in Nursing in 2019 from the University of Alberta, Canada[2],[3]. She is a global health leader who advocates for the breastfeeding support needs of the vulnerable and marginalized population of refugee and immigrant women and young children affected by natural disaster and subsequent displacement [4],[5],[6]

Honors and Awards

In 2023, Hirani was honored with the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal from the Government of Saskatchewan, Canada[7].

She is a board member of Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan[8]. In 2022, she received “Saskatchewan Multicultural Leadership Award” from the lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan, Canada[9] and “The YWCA Regina Nutrien Women of Distinction Award”[10],[11] in the category of Research, Science and Technology. These awards recognize her community services, advocacy for the pluralistic society, and research and scientific pursuit to improve the quality of life of the vulnerable population, mainly refugee families with young children. In 2023, she was inducted into the prestigious Marquis Who’s Who Biographical Registry[12]

In 2020, she was recognized as one of 100 outstanding women nurse and midwife leaders from around the world by Women in Global Health in partnership with the World Health Organization, International Council of Nurses, International confederation of midwives, United Nations Population Fund and Nursing Now [13],[14],[15],[16].

She is also the recipient of Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing's Emerging Nurse Researcher award 2020[17] and Canada's most prestigious scholarship awards, including the Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship Award and Honorary Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Scholarship Award recognizing her outstanding academic excellence, community services, leadership, and contribution for knowledge development in Nursing.

Breastfeeding Advocacy Work

Shela Hirani is actively involved in breastfeeding advocacy in diverse care settings and health promotion of the vulnerable population of women and young children who are refugees, immigrants, internally displaced, and homeless. In Canada, she is actively involved in advocating for safe spaces to remove breastfeeding barriers in a variety of public places like airports, shopping malls, restaurants, mothers’ workplace settings, child daycare centres, hospitals, and post-secondary institutions. Her work with breastfeeding mothers during the natural disasters[18] has contributed to improvement in policies and practices.

Research

She has established her program of research entitled Breastfeeding Advocacy Research: Program, Practices and Policies (BARPPP). Her work with the immigrant and refugee families is empowering youth, dismantling breastfeeding barriers in diverse care settings, and informing supportive interventions for breastfeeding mothers in disaster zones, post-secondary institutions, workplaces and public spaces[19]. She lobbied for on-campus baby-friendly breastfeeding spaces for mothers at Pakistani and Canadian universities. This movement resulted in campus breastfeeding rooms and a baby-friendly policy in post-secondary institutions in Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. Her global breastfeeding advocacy efforts have facilitated disaster relief workers, refugee/immigrant settlement agencies, policymakers, and healthcare professionals to develop need-based, gender-sensitive, and context-specific supportive interventions to improve breastfeeding practices of internally displaced and immigrant/ refugee mothers in Pakistan and Canada. During the pandemic, her breastfeeding advocacy work led to the development of an evidence-based, easy-to-understand, context-specific and user-friendly e-resource on “Breastfeeding during COVID-19: An Information Guide” which facilitated more than 2000 Canadian mothers seeking need-based informational breastfeeding support.

Publications

Hirani has published several papers in the referred journals on the topic of breastfeeding barriers and effects of disaster and displacement on maternal, child and neonatal health[20]

Services

Hirani is serving as a board member for the Council of International Neonatal Nurses[21] and has served as an editorial board member for the reputable journals, including BMC Public Health, PLOS Global Public Health, Frontiers in Public Health, and International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. She has served as the President of the Rho Delta Chapter of the Sigma Nursing (the honor society of nursing). She has disseminated her research work with the vulnerable population through media interviews, expert presentations in international conferences, and YouTube videos featuring challenges faced by the refugee and immigrant families with young children[22]. As a mentor, Hirani is mentoring next generation of nurses and healthcare professionals interested in maternal child health, disaster and displacement, and breastfeeding advocacy in diverse care settings.

References

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  1. ^ https://www.uregina.ca/nursing/directory/faculty/shela-hirani.html
  2. ^ "Shela Hirani".
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[1] https://www.uregina.ca/nursing/directory/faculty/shela-hirani.html

[2] https://killamlaureates.ca/laureates/shela-hirani-breastfeeding-through-disaster-displacement/

[3] https://www.ualberta.ca/nursing/nursing-news/2016/october/mothers-milk-reducing-child-mortality-after-natural-disasters.html

[4] https://leaderpost.com/life/queen-city/u-of-r-professor-is-a-voice-for-refugee-women-in-sask-healthcare

[5] https://www.canadian-nurse.com/blogs/cn-content/2023/09/25/breastfeeding-advocate-shela-hirani

[6] https://www.shrf.ca/post/meet-the-researcher-shela-hirani

[7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Elizabeth_II_Platinum_Jubilee_Medal

[8] https://mcos.ca/about/team/

[9] https://mcos.ca/events/sask-multicultural-week/honours/

[10] https://leaderpost.com/news/local-news/women-of-distinction-awards-handed-out-in-regina

[11] https://ywcaregina.com/distinction/recipients/

[12] https://www.24-7pressrelease.com/press-release/503080/shela-hirani-has-been-inducted-into-the-prestigious-marquis-whos-who-biographical-registry

[13] https://www.nurseszone.in/nurseszone/list-of-100-outstanding-women-nurses-and-midwives-2020/204.html

[14] https://the.ismaili/global/outstanding-nurses/outstanding-nurse-dr-shela-hirani-supports-breastfeeding-among-vulnerable

[15] https://www.dawn.com/news/1598599

[16] https://tribune.com.pk/story/2277759/eight-pakistanis-make-it-to-worlds-top-100-nurses-midwives-list

[17] https://www.sigmanursing.org/connect-engage/news-detail/2020/02/27/sigma-announces-five-emerging-nurse-researchers-and-scholars-for-2020

[18] https://ismailimail.blog/2018/05/08/university-of-albertas-doctoral-student-shela-hirani-travels-to-chitral-pakistan-to-explore-breastfeeding-practices-of-mothers-affected-by-disaster-and-displacement/

[19] https://womenshealthresearch.ubc.ca/people/shela-hirani

[20] https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=6_2v3q8AAAAJ

[21] https://www.coinnurses.org/board-members

[22] https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRbdiVxuf8BpFd4TYiMHi3Q

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