In 2008, Dr. Kemal Goshliyev returned to the Central Skin and Venereal Disease Hospital in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan with a master’s degree in public health and a commitment to improve the institution he’d worked at for over 10 years. The hospital is the leading institution of its kind in Turkmenistan, with the goal of restoring, maintaining, and enhancing health through superior care, and provides assistance to similar hospitals across the country. Dr. Goshliyev enjoyed his work, but was concerned with the issue of patients’ rights—something that he had explored in depth as a master’s student in the United States.
Dr. Goshliyev received a Muskie fellowship in 2006 to study public health at Western Illinois University [9]. “After completing my graduate program in the USA I returned back home full of enthusiasm to work here. My educational experience, strong motivation to improve health care services and the attitude of a Muskie fellow compelled me to [return] to the hospital,” Dr. Goshliyev explained.
In 2009, Dr. Goshliyev received a Careers for Alumni in Public Service (CAPS) award, which provides a stipend to alumni working in the public service sector in their home communities. He used it to deliver twelve presentations to 28 health professionals on topics such as patients' rights, health care administration, health care management, and preventive measures for sexually transmitted infections. Dr. Goshliyev also mounted the text of the World Medical Association’s Declaration on the Rights of the Patient [10] in the hospital’s lobby. The Declaration states that unnecessary medical treatment violates patients’ rights, an idea that was new to many patients. In addition, he also measured health professionals’ attitudes towards patients’ rights before and after his seminars. He noted “significant positive changes” in attitudes towards patients and his “audience believes now that maintaining patients’ rights [is] much more worthwhile.”
“CAPS allowed me to advance and demonstrate my leadership potential in public service," Dr. Goshliyev reflected. "I am proud to be a Muskie fellow...I feel dedicated to the public service, which makes my life more meaningful for me.” Dr. Goshliyev saw the CAPS award as an opportunity to share some of the knowledge, skills and practices that he acquired during his fellowship in U.S. More importantly, he saw it as a chance to help his patients: “I started to advocate for the rights of the patients when they did not even know that they have them.”
