Our Frontline Worker of the Week is… Nurse Khadine Christian

Jul 19, 2020 News

“My love for helping people, got the better of me, even though I realized that working on the frontline, in the fight against COVID-19, could jeopardize, not only my life, but those closest to me….my family.”

By Enid Joaquin

It is often said that you have to face your fears to conquer them. Well, if you ever doubted this school of thought, Nurse Khadine Christian, our ‘Frontline Worker of the Week’, is being featured this week to convince you of its efficacy.

On the frontline garbed in PPEs.

Nurse Khadine Christian.

In a recent interview, Nurse Christian confessed, that facing up to the challenges that COVID-19 has brought, at first, filled her with trepidation. It was a fear of the unknown…a fear of this “thing” that had stretched its tentacles across the world and consumed countless victims. This “thing”, a pandemic of contagious proportion, was never before seen, even by some who had faced their fair share of contagions in years gone by.
Understandably, Nurse Christian was fearful that such a formidable foe could’ve found its way to our shores. She certainly did not stifle this fear but owned up to it. In fact, she decided that the best move was to face it head on.
It wasn’t easy to get to this point but her passion for her work, and her love for helping others helped her to conquer the nagging demons that constantly whispered: “you’re putting your life at risk!”
ON THE FRONTLINE
Speaking of the journey to overcoming her fear in order to secure a place on the frontline in the fight against the COVID-19 threat, Nurse Christian said, “My love for helping people, got the better of me, even though I realized that working on the frontline, in the fight against COVID-19, could jeopardize, not only my life, but those closest to me…my family.”
Emboldened by the fact that she was taking all the necessary precautionary measures, she plunged headlong, into waters not yet charted, fully geared, and convinced, that her life and the lives of those who depended on her, were at stake.
She admitted that never in her wildest dreams, did she envision herself on the frontline, working during such a massive pandemic.
“I never saw this coming…was never prepared for it, but here I am now, doing the best I can, to help keep our people safe,” she said justifying her place on the COVID-19 frontline in the mining town of Linden.

In the company of colleagues, prepared to wage war against COVID-19.

For her, this is of paramount importance – helping to keep others safe – which also means keeping her own family safe.
Interesting to note though, initially, nursing had not been a career of choice for Nurse Christian. Her first job, she recalled, was at the Linden Municipality Day Care Centre as an attendant, where she worked for two years.
After that, she proceeded to the Vivienne Parris Health Centre as a clerk.
It was there that she developed a passion for nursing. According the her, the inspiration to delve into this field came from watching a nurse by the name of Eugeney Roberts who displayed the utmost care and concern for her patients.
NO REGRETS
She has no regrets taking the nursing path. This has become especially evident by her determination to fight fear in order to be the best possible nurse at such a daunting juncture of the profession.
Concerning her function and duties these days, Nurse Christian had this to say, “On a daily basis, this would entail contact tracing for patients that were tested positive. I trace the relatives and friends that they would have come into contact with, in the community.”
That is basically how testing is done, based on contact tracing, she explained.
Nurse Christian related too, that her days are mostly busy calling up persons to find out whether they would have come in contact with a positive case, and lining up their dates for testing, among other things.
Our ‘front line worker’ said that she also works, with the response team, alongside colleagues, which includes the environmental team and Community Health Workers.
“We all work together to achieve the same goal, which is keeping the community safe,” she said as she acknowledged that her group is no longer afraid of the dreaded disease, but is instead focused on keeping the community safe.
“My number one thing in nursing is loving and caring for people, and bringing them back to good health. It makes you feel so good when somebody walks up to you and say, ‘Nurse you can’t remember me? …when I went to the clinic at one time, you used to do my dressing’, or somebody would come and say, this nurse is my favourite nurse, she does really take care of me!”
BECOMING A NURSE
Nurse Christian was trained at the Charles Rosa School of Nursing between 2001 and 2003.
She gained employment with the Regional Democratic Council subsequently and remembers being placed at various health centres where she honed skills to be effective in the primary health care system.
She explained that the job afforded her the opportunity to travel throughout Region 10, and she was privileged to work at all of the health facilities during outreaches.
Over the past six years, she has been functioning as the Epidemiology Nurse at the Regional Health Office, in Linden.
Her responsibilities include, accessing and analyzing trends and patterns, for both communicable and non-communicable diseases across the Region. Indeed, this has made her especially suitable to be on the Region’s COVID-19 response team.
She posited that gathering information is crucial as it equips health care providers with the requisite knowledge of diseases that are prevalent in a community, and if there is an outbreak. This essentially helps to guide a tactical response.
PASSION, NOT PAY-CHEQUE
Talking about her job with palpable passion, Nurse Christian said that a nurse, could never really be adequately compensated for fulfilling such a duty. As such for her, it is really not about the pay cheque. “It was never about the job, or the money! I don’t have a love for my job, I have a love for people, and that is the reason I chose nursing,” Nurse Christian asserted.
She admitted that, it is that love that has kept her going over the years.
Married for 25 years to, Anthony Christian, the love of her life, Nurse Christian revealed that she loves spending quality time with her family. This has certainly not been affected by the restrictions presented due to the pandemic, she shared.
“I love to cook and keep a nice home!” said the proud mother of Shaqueena Christian, a daughter who has followed in her footsteps. Her daughter recently completed training as a nurse.
Questioned, if she had in anyway influenced her daughter’s decision to become a nurse, Nurse Christian quickly quipped, “but of course! I was always talking about my job, and about the people that I was able to help nurse back to health; so maybe, without intending to, I did influence her decision, and I’m so happy about that.”
She is convinced too, that she would have also influenced her husband’s daughter, Showana Christian, who also works in the health sector.
For any mother, having an offspring follow in their professional footsteps is indeed one of the greatest blessings and Nurse Christian can certainly attest to this. It is testament to the close bond, which they would have developed overtime.
So for not only being a mentor but also for being an outstanding health care provider, even in the face of the dreaded COVID-19 pandemic, we at Kaieteur News say hats off to Nurse Khadine Christian and bestow her with our ‘Frontline Worker of the Week’ title.