Tragic losses spur Doctor of Nursing student to affect change in healthcare in her native country of Cameroon

Pamela Oriaifo, a student in Liberty University’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program, wants to use her advanced degree to improve mental health awareness and overall health services in Africa as she advocates for new nurses entering careers in healthcare.

Oriaifo was raised in a Christian home in Ekondo Titi, a city in the Southwest Region of Cameroon in west-central Africa. As a teenager, she was interested in the liberal arts but chose to pursue nursing after the sudden passing of one of her brothers following a brief illness in 2003. She moved to the United States in 2005 at the age of 18 to pursue a college education, beginning in the Washington, D.C., area before ultimately settling in Maryland.

“My parents really instilled in me the importance of education; they taught our family that knowledge is power and that we can always do better,” she said. “One day, I plan on going back to Cameroon with my family to have a practice of our own to serve the people there and teach them about health.”

Her first nursing job in the U.S. was at a hospital in Washington where her husband, Dr. Paul Oriaifo, was practicing as a general surgeon. For the last 10 years, Oriaifo has been an ICU nurse, serving her patients with compassion.

“The patients cannot always talk to you, and they are very vulnerable, so we (nurses) are everything for them,” Oriaifo said. “All we can do for them is show empathy and compassion. I believe that what you give is what you get. I’ve always been taught kindness, fairness, and showing love to others.”

She also works as a provider at the Police and Fire Clinic in Washington, where she cares for Metropolitan police officers and firefighters.

In 2018, Oriaifo obtained her first master’s degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP-BC).

Tragedy struck her family again in 2021, when another brother in Africa passed away. Oriaifo said he was a successful bank manager with a master’s degree in economics who struggled with undiagnosed health issues. Her family was not able to find him competent medical services he needed for his illness, which Oriaifo now suspects could have been mental health related. His death spurred her to pursue a Doctor of Nursing Practice (Post-MSN) with a specialization as a Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP) through Liberty’s online program. Oriaifo is on track to complete the degree this fall. Her thesis focuses on the development of a camera-assisted system to monitor hospital patients who are labeled as fall risks — those likely to experience complications if they fall. She is already a board-certified Mental Health Practitioner (PMHNP-BC).

“Studying online with Liberty has been one of the best experiences in my life so far,” she said. “It has a family-oriented feel, I have people rooting for me in the program, and there is a network that gives me the tools academically and spiritually. I’ve called the advising office to get information, and whenever they hear I’m having a stressful day, they pause and ask if they can pray for me. Nobody has ever done that for me in my time here in the United States in an academic setting.”

With the new degree, Oriaifo hopes to one day return to Cameroon and improve local medical care with the help of her husband. She wants to improve services for patients with mental illness, which she said is more stigmatized in Cameroon than it is in the United States.

Since moving to America, the mother of three said she has had to rely on her faith.

“My faith has brought me to where I am today. I told myself that if I put my mind and soul into my goals and do it the right way, I can make it, and that’s what I’ve done. I just stayed in my truth, and that has helped me become everything I am today.”

Liberty’s Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) program trains nurses to become leaders, family nurse practitioners, and clinical experts. Two paths are available — an online post-MSN and a residential post-BSN — that incorporate additional clinical training to prepare students for advanced careers in nursing. The residential program prepares students to take a national certification examination for family nurse practitioners. The DNP program is accredited through the Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education (CCNE).