Good health care must start internally - says Health Minister

Good health care must start internally – says Health Minister

May 11, 2018 News

as new General Nursing Council installed

Members of the newly installed nursing council flank the seated Ministers of Public Health, Dr. Karen Cummings and Ms. Volda Lawrence, and Permanent Secretary, Ms. Collette Adams

The nation’s health care professionals should be able to enjoy the highest quality of health care and be among the healthiest in the Caribbean and the Americas. This was the assertion of Minister of Public Health, Ms. Volda Lawrence, who share the belief that “we have to start from within in order to be able to provide the best care to our people.”

In order to achieve this goal, the Minister said, “This means that we have to work in unison; team work will be the key to us achieving our objective.”

As she stressed the need for the realisation of smart goals, the Minister said that it is important that the Ministry and the General Nursing Council work in sync to build the vital synergy that will help attain the needed goals.

“In this era, working unilaterally undermines the best strategies and we may envisage many…I want to emphasise the importance of us working on the same page, communicating and collaborating with each other in order to reach our targets,” said Minister Lawrence.

The Minister’s remarks were made at the installation ceremony of the new General Nursing Council on Wednesday at the Lamaha Street, Georgetown Herdmanston Lodge. Speaking to the members of the Council, the Minister said, “…Act in the best interest of those we are representing.”

The Nursing Council has a key role to play in helping the Ministry to realise its primary objective to advance nursing education in Guyana. This is crucial, the Minister said, to ensure that “we can produce a core of quality and competent nurses.”

Registrar of the Council, Ms. Donette Kellman, revealed that the body is known to conduct at least 12 examinations annually, three of which have already been completed for this year.

She disclosed, too, that registration is an ongoing process with the total number of registrants renewing their licences for 2018 amounting to 2,669.

Kellman recalled that on July 13, 1950, the late Dr. Jacob Alexander Nicholson, a nominated member of the then legislative Council, moved the motion seeking to have a Nursing Council set up to be responsible for nursing in Guyana.

Three years after a Bill was debated and passed in March 26, 1954, the General Nursing Council was inaugurated with a view to have a body of members elected and nominated from the registered nurses category to look into the practice of nurses in the then British Guiana.

But according to Kellman, at the end of the first three years, the Council was dissolved and registered nurses and midwives were asked to nominate members for the subsequent years. Currently, the main aim of the Council is to set standards for nursing in Guyana with respect to training of students in basic and post basic nursing, and the practice of general nursing and midwifery.

The operation of the Council, she noted is backed by the Nurses and Midwives Registration Ordinance which states that: “the Council is responsible for conducting examinations for registration of nurses, midwives and nursing assistants; establishing of and improving standards of education and practice; maintaining the professional register; determining entry requirements for programmes of study leading to admission to the register; evaluating application forms for nurses, midwives and nursing assistants trained overseas who are seeking admission to the register; giving advice on professional conduct; conducting hearings to determine whether practitioners should be removed from the register because of misconduct or illness which seriously impair the fitness to practice and prosecuting those who falsely claim to be qualified nurses, midwives and nursing assistants.”

Comprised of 15 members, with six representatives appointed by government and eight elected members along with the Chief Nursing Officer as the Chairperson, the semi autonomous body is one with a stipulated three-year term.

The nominated six members of the Council, Kellman informed, are representatives from educational institutions, schools of nursing, nurses association, hospitals and a lawyer on its body of members.

Those who are elected include four individuals representing registered nurses, three representing midwives and one representing nursing assistants.

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