Four decades of selfless service…Sister Noshella Lalckecharran is a ‘Special Person’

Apr 07, 2013 News

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“It was true dedication and love for this country that made me remain here. I could have left the country for a big paying job, but what would happen if everyone left… What would happen if all of the nurses left these shores…No one would be here to take care of the nation’s people.”

 

By Latoya Giles
Nursing is one of the most noble professions a person can be a part of. It teaches patience and compassion, and those two words most definitely describe Assistant Director of Nursing at the Georgetown Hospital, Sister Noshella Lalckecharran.
Sister Lalckecharran has been in the profession for some 44 years, something she insists she was destined to be in. She has travelled throughout Guyana and can assuredly say that she has nursed the nation.

She hails from Helena number one Mahaica, East Coast Demerara and was born in 1949. Her parents Sookdiah and Lalckecharran had five children together, three boys and two girls. Her mother was a housewife and her father was a tailor/barber. Sookdiah, she said, also tended their cash crop farm.
According to Noshella, she came from a humble background with strong family ties. From an early age, she was able to appreciate that education was one of the most valuable things that she should strive to achieve. Of the five siblings, she was the only one who managed to attain a secondary education.
Sister Lalcky, as she is now popularly known, started her quest for education at the Canadian Mission School (an Anglican School) in the late 1950s.  After graduating in 1964 she went on to the Hindu College where she gained her secondary education. From early on she said she knew she wanted to become a nurse, even though she had a fear of blood.
She said she was encouraged to join that particular school by friends who were attending it.  Sister Lalcky recounted that her parents wanted the best for her, and as such they made numerous sacrifices. She reflected that attending High School in those days was expensive.
Noshella said her older brother was also supposed to attend High School but because of finances he could not. She recalls having to get out of bed early in the mornings to catch the train that would take her to school, but she said she did it with pride, commitment and purpose, because she knew she had to do well in order to fulfill her dream. She said her brother started working and along with support from her parents she managed to attend that school and came out successful.
About a year after graduating she was at home, not working. She said that her former headmaster was passing one afternoon and saw her sitting at home. He encouraged her to start teaching. So that’s just what she did. She started as a trainee. However teaching was never something she liked doing.
“My mind was never set on teaching…my real passion was nursing.”
According to Noshella, she taught for about a year. Even though she wanted to be a nurse, she reiterated that her “fear of seeing blood” was a problem.  Her father on many occasions would always ask her how come she wanted to become a nurse and could not handle this most fundamental aspect of the profession.

“And so, while yet at primary school, I would attend Red Cross classes, and that was (how) my first exposure came,” she recalled.
After teaching for that year, she started a brief stint at the Prashad Hospital. She spent approximately a year at that institution. She said that she would constantly visit the Georgetown Hospital to find out if she was selected to be in the nursing batch, to which she had applied.
“I would visit the (Georgetown) hospital on a weekly basis to see if my name was selected.”
On January 15, 1969, she was called to join the training school. She graduated from the nursing programme. According to her there was no “student’ status. They were doing all the shifts as the senior nurses.
“Back in those days we would run the wards and do everything like the senior nurses…that’s a difference, compared to student nurses today.”
Noshella qualified as an Registered Nurse in September 1972. She said she can still vividly recall her excitement the day she received a letter informing her that she had been accepted into the nursing programme and was required to begin training. It was March 15, 1969 – a few weeks before her birthday.
Her initial placement was in the Maternity Ward doing midwifery, then at the Out-Patient Department, and by July 1973, she was sent to the Operating Room, for which she developed a keen liking.
She got married in the 1980s and that union produced two children. Also during the earlier part of that decade she transferred to the Suddie Hospital. According to her she spent about at year there. She worked in the Male Surgical Ward and was responsible for the operating theatre there as well. She later returned to the Georgetown Hospital, where in 1986 she was promoted to Ward Manager.
In between her stint at the operating theatre she was doing many courses. In 1996, her then supervisor retired and she took the position until 2001. During that time she completed a course in Canada. In 2001 October she was transferred to the Administrative Section of the Hospital, in which she holds her present position.

Sister Lalcky admits missing the theatre a lot after leaving there, but even though very busy with clerical and administrative duties, she still makes the time to advance herself academically. From 2005 to 2007, she pursued studies at the University of Guyana, and at age 57, graduated with a BSc in Nursing. And so, from being brought up in a home where she was the only one attending high school, today, Sister Lalcky is from a home where four out of five persons (including her late husband) attended university and graduated.
While agreeing that every aspect of nursing care is important, Sister Lalcky still feels that her years of working in and supervising the operating theatres were those best spent.
“It was something for which I had a passion. I recall working along with students. I also worked along with a number of surgeons as well – from general surgeons to gynaecologists to orthodaedic surgeons. For me it was always a learning experience.”
“I tell my younger colleagues that nothing is impossible. Once you make up your mind to achieve something, you will get it. But it calls for hard work and invariably, sacrifices – deferred gratification or sacrifice in the furtherance of an end.”
Sadly, she’s observed that a lot of younger nurses in the profession are not taking on the challenge of upgrading themselves academically, thus obviously their skills are not being upgraded.
“My advice to the young nurses is: be dedicated to the job; be honest… honest in giving medication, providing services for the patients and journaling these, so as to have a continuity of care. Be compassionate towards the patients, and have respect for people. Learn the basic theatre principles – the preparation of the room, the way you dress, the way you carry yourself generally, and most importantly, always have a thirst for knowledge.”
Sister Lalcky emphatically states that “you must always be committed to what you’re doing. You have to like your job. If you have that caring attitude and love for the job, it makes it so much easier.”
On a personal note, she says that after staying in the job for so long she feels “dignified”, but joked that she didn’t necessarily like the publicity she was receiving (from being chosen as this week’s ‘Special Person’).
In concluding, she thought long and hard about what the past few decades have meant to her.
“It was true dedication and love for this country that made me remain here. I could have left the country for a big paying job, but what would happen if everyone left… What would happen if all of the nurses left these shores…No one would be here to take care of the nation’s people.”
And she’s right. Serving Guyana’s citizens for 44 years is most definitely an honourable accomplishment and deserving of recognition. Sister Noshella Lalckecharran is indeed a special person.

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