By Linda Naa Deide Aryeetey
Accra, May 26, GNA – Naomi Oyoe Ohene Oti, a Ghanaian oncology nurse and educator at Korle Bu Teaching Hospital, has won the 2025 Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award.
The award, presented in Dubai on Sunday, comes with a $250,000 cash prize.
She emerged as the winner among 10 finalists, selected from more than 100,000 nominations across 199 countries.
The award recognises outstanding nurses for exceptional commitment and leadership in advancing healthcare.
Mrs. Oti, who also serves as Head of Nursing at Ghana’s National Radiotherapy Oncology and Nuclear Medicine Centre, was honoured for her transformative impact on cancer care across Africa.
With a 23-year career, she has pioneered specialist oncology training in Ghana, mentored over 60 oncology nurse specialists and 10 breast care nurses, and helped develop Ghana’s first postgraduate oncology nursing curriculum in 2015.
Her contributions to oncology education and policy reform, including launching Ghana’s first formal oncology nurse training programme, have earned her national and international recognition.
She is a key member of the African Organization for Research and Training in Cancer (AORTIC) and a co-investigator on the Global Bridges Oncology Grant.
The Aster Guardians Global Nursing Award, first introduced by Aster DM Healthcare, was launched on May 12, 2022, at International Nurses Day in Dubai, where Anna Qabale Duba from Kenya won from among 24,000 nurses.
The award aims to recognise nurses’ contributions to healthcare and bring key stakeholders together to improve global health systems.
The second edition, held at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre in London on May 12, 2023, was won by Margaret Helen Shepherd, a UK nurse specialising in monogenic diabetes.
In 2024, the award was hosted in India’s Silicon Valley, where Maria Victoria Juan from the Philippines, a Consultant at the Philippines Army Health Services and Colonel in the Armed Forces Reserve, won the $250,000 grand prize.
The 2025 finalists included Catherine Maree Holliday (Switzerland), Edith Namba (Papua New Guinea), Fitz Gerald Dalina Camacho (UAE), and Dr Jed Ray Gengoba Montayre (Hong Kong SAR).
Others were Dr Jose Arnold Tariga (USA), Khadija Mohamed Juma (Kenya), Maheswari Jaganathan (Malaysia), Naomi Oyoe Ohene Oti (Ghana), Dr Sukhpal Kaur (India), and Vibhaben Gunvantbhai Salaliya (India).
GNA
Edited by Kenneth Sackey