Latest update January 10th, 2025 5:00 AM
Latest News
- Jagdeo-led PPP supported tax waivers to Exxon without seeing terms of oil contract
- President stomps Nandlall’s plan to appeal $24M awarded to Quindon Bacchus’ family
- More than 46,000 Palestinians have been killed in the Israel-Hamas war, officials say
- Benn flags citizens lax approach to fire safety
- Chinese man missing after falling off new harbour bridge
Nurses are critical — says Chief Nursing Officer
“Nurses are key and critical; their vital role is to give service and support the health sector,” reminded Chief Nursing Officer, Tarramattie Barker, as she addressed nurses at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) yesterday.
Nurses march in observance of International Nurse’s Day.
In observance of International Nurses’ Day, nurses from (GPHC), joined by nurses from the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital, all braved the weather to march as they wrapped up the Nursing Week celebrations.
Barker said that the roles of nurses are important and must be acknowledged by their employer.
She told those gathered at the GPHC, East Street parking lot, that it is time to give nurses, midwives and other nursing personnel who are part of the nursing team greater recognition.
In her address, Barker stated that nurses are the largest group of healthcare professionals who serve at all levels in the ten Administrative Regions. “They are our frontline workers, our best assets, and we need to invest in them and equip them to provide high quality patient-centred care,” she said.
She reminded the nurses that their roles are integral to lead. She encouraged them to let their voices be heard at the policy and decision-making levels to bring about change in the hospital and health sector.
“The role of nurses has become expansive; it is more than just knowing how to perform health tasks and procedures; it is about being a more effective member of the healthcare team: to lead, to manage, to communicate, so as to ensure that care is delivered effectively, efficiently and with great compassion to the individuals who are hospitalised, their families and others without groups and community settings,” Barker told the nurses.
“Health is a human right, no matter the setting or the location, health care should be made accessible to everyone,” she added.
Barker said that the theme, “A voice to lead-Health is a human right,” reminds nurses and nursing professionals of the right of each and every individual to the highest attainable standard of health care.
“We are reminded of our professional responsibility to care and to enable access to health care service so that all individuals regardless of their age, geographic location, racial or religious background and financial status, have a right to safe, respectful and compassionate care.
“No one should be left behind without access to health care,” Barker added.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Brig. George Lewis said that without nurses the health care system will fail.
“The health care system is a chain and each one of us has our role. The nurses have a critical role to perform…A chain is as strong as its weakest link, and it therefore means that the nurses must work and perform in such a way that the nurse link is as strong and it contributes to the development of the health care system,” Lewis said.
“I believe that it is only through your love for what you’re doing that you make such great contribution,” he told the nurses.
On a daily bases, nurses would come into contact with persons they would have never met before. “…There is no link between you and that person, and you work hard day in and day out to provide health care for those persons…I think it is a wonderful act of love.”
He advised them to look at ways in which they can improve their duties and performance. It can improve the way they care for persons, he said.
“If you observe another nurse not performing his/her duty properly, you have a responsibility to speak to that nurse because whenever people criticise us, or whenever something goes wrong, they do not say ‘Nurse Jones’ or ‘Nurse Lewis,’ they say ‘the nurses’,” Lewis explained.
Kesaundra Alves, Chairman of the Board of Director at the Georgetown Public Hospital, who was also at the march, said that the nursing leadership should look for opportunities for nurses to elevate themselves. She said that nurses should not be stagnant explaining that there is more to do in the nursing field.
International Nurses’ Day is celebrated around the world on May 12.
Similar Articles
THE BLUNT OF THE DAY
Sports
Features/Columnists
The unconscionable terms of the PSA establish a case for renegotiation
The unconscionable terms, The unconscionable terms Peeping Tom… Kaieteur News- The Production Sharing Agreement (PSA)... more
Forget Begging Rich Nations: Caribbean Countries Should Act to Save Themselves
By Sir Ronald Sanders Kaieteur News- It has long been evident that the world’s richest nations, especially those responsible... more
Weekend Cartoon
