GPHC nurses to undergo palliative care training

Oct 25, 2016 News

-intended to advance support to cancer patients

The fact that a number of patients are continuing to be diagnosed with cancer at an advanced stage suggests they may not have a chance at survival. This therefore means that many of them will simply have to prepare to die.

Some members of the visiting OSHAG team. At left are nurses Maureen Chukwujindu and Ingrid Porter (respectively) and second from right is OSHAG President, Ms. Carol Bagot.

But dying does not have to be completely unpleasant.
It is for this reason that nurses attached to the Oncology Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) will from today be exposed to palliative care training with a view to ensuring that they have the skill set to help cancer patients who are terminally ill with a better quality of life during their remaining years.
The training, which is slated to culminate on Thursday, comes as part of the public institution’s collaboration with the United States-based Organisation for Social and Health Advancement in Guyana (OSHAG) which has been offering its support in the area of cancer care over the years. OSHAG is headed by Ms Carol Bagot who was able to solicit the support of expert Oncology Nurses to facilitate the training.
The training was one that was requested by Mr. Alan Johnson who was acting in the capacity of Chief Executive Officer at the GPHC earlier this year.
Like Bagot, the two nurses, Maureen Chukwujindu and Ingrid Porter, set to take the lead in the training venture are Guyanese who migrated to the United States several years ago.
Nurse Chukwujindu, who migrated from Guyana 40 years ago, said that she was already a trained nurse before she left these shores. She was trained at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.
However her training in oncology and palliative care was in the United States.
Nurse Chukwujindu has 25 years of experience as an Oncology Nurse. “I moved from bedside oncology nursing to clinical oncology nursing to actually purchasing, mixing and giving chemotherapy…This was all by choice; I wanted to see the whole picture of oncology,” said Chukwujindu. She used her expertise to set up her own Oncology Clinic in the United States.
But according to her, “My first love has always been Guyana.”
Nurse Chukwujindu said that she was eager to join forces with OSHAG to offer her expertise here.
Porter, on the other hand, left Guyana as a teacher 36 years ago. She gravitated to the nursing profession when she migrated and has worked in many aspects of nursing over the years including nursing education.
She has vast experience in both practising and teaching oncology nursing and palliative care. In fact she is an international trainer attached to the End-of-Life Nursing Education Consortium (ELNEC) a US project dedicated to palliative care. Porter, who is now retired, said that she is happy to share her knowledge with local nurses.
“All I knew is that I wanted to take my retirement and come back home and see what I can do for my country…this is a place that I love,” Porter related.
According to Bagot, “These nurses are well educated and have many years in regards to oncology nursing” and will therefore be able to help bolster the cancer care offered here.
Cancer awareness is amplified annually during the month of October and OSHAG has over the years collaborated with the GPHC to raise awareness about the disease. The non-governmental organisation (NGO) was in fact instrumental in setting up the Oncology Unit of the hospital since among its main areas of focus is chemotherapy.
According to Bagot, it was in 2014 that the NGO approached the GPHC to introduce the Oncology Unit. This move, she said was premised on the recognised need to provide treatment. But there was need for training even at this stage. The necessary training was facilitated then too by OSHAG and saw a team of nurses coming from the Memorial Sloan Kettering Centre, cancer hospital in New York, United States, to conduct a week-long training.
But according to Bagot yesterday, “We recognised that the unit is being used by many patients in the country and it is the only unit here catering to all these women and men who have been diagnosed with cancer.”
OSHAG has plans to have a sustained presence in Guyana and will therefore continue to collaborate to help ensure that cancer patients have access to treatment and are educated too about preventative measures.
OSHAG is supported by fundraisers and assistance is also forthcoming from individuals and organisations. The NGO on this occasion was able to secure travel sponsorship from Dynamic Airways.