Public Health Nurse/Medex Keisha Moore

Nov 29, 2020 News

Our Frontline Worker of the Week is…

By Enid Joaquin

Kaieteur News – With COVID-19 cases escalating around the world, frontline workers in the area of health are becoming more hard-pressed daily, as they strive to cope with the pandemic.
Many are working longer hours to valiantly fight this disease, which people all across the globe are hoping and praying to see the end of.

On the job: Garbed in her PPEs to combat the COVID-19.

Frontline Worker Nurse Keisha Moore.

One of the frontline workers forced to work longer hours is a Public Health Nurse/Medex, Keisha Moore, who is attached to the Regional Health Department, Region 10.
In a recent interview, Nurse Moore, spoke candidly about her initial fears about COVID-19, and how she has been coping since being placed on the frontline.
“Before I got into COVID, in January, when I went to Lethem to work, I was very, very fearful of the pandemic. It wasn’t here yet, but we were being proactive to prevent it from getting into Guyana. Our RHO (Regional Health Officer) asked some other colleagues and myself, and we agreed to go but I was still very fearful. Everyone was fearful…my spouse, everyone was fearful,” she recounted.
Nurse Moore, however, pointed out that she read up a lot on the pandemic and followed the news and this helped her to become a little bit more comfortable. By then she was observing all the precautionary measures to keep safe.
Nonetheless, she related that ever since she began to function as a frontline worker earlier this year, her life has taken a different turn. This, according to her, was something she was totally unprepared for.

In the company of her colleagues.

“In the beginning it was very challenging, as persons were not very receptive to being tested, as some maintained that COVID-19 was not real…it was just something being propagated to control people,” Nurse Moore revealed.
There has now been a drastic change as it relates to the general perception of the pandemic and with that, persons have become more receptive, she disclosed.
Presently, some even came forward to be tested, and requested that their family members be tested too, she added.
Nurse Moore has to her credit an Associate Degree in Public Health and a Bachelor of Science Degree. A former student of the Mackenzie High School, Nurse Moore commenced the professional nursing programme at the Charles Roza School of Nursing, the same year she graduated from secondary school.
“My career as a professional nursing student was short-lived after a few unsuccessful attempts at the state finals medical nursing exams,” she recalled.
However, in 2008, her eldest brother called her, immediately after seeing an advertisement in the newspaper for the Medex programme.

MEDEX Opening
Nurse Moore said that she paid him no mind, as at the time, she felt that she had lost the love for the medical profession.
Despite her reluctance, her brother went ahead and sent in an application.
Reflecting on the whole episode, Nurse Moore said she was surprised when she was called for the interview, and though still not interested, she turned up for it and was successful.
She subsequently commenced the Medex programme in 2008 and graduated in 2011 as a registered Midwife/Medex with an Associate Science Degree.
She worked from 2011 to 2017 at the Lititia Holder Health Center in Amelia’s Ward and the DeVeldt Health Center in the Berbice River.
During her attachment at those two health facilities, she was engaged in medical outreaches to villages along the Berbice River.
She would later apply to do the Public Health programme in 2017 and began her training that very year.
Two years later, she graduated with a BSc degree in Public Health.
After graduating, Nurse Moore spent a short time at the Lititia Holder Health Center, and then in January 2020 was temporarily transferred to Region Nine.
There she had to assist in the strengthening of border control in the fight against COVID-19.
She returned to Linden in March where she joined the COVID-19 response team.
“Ever since I did that, my life took a different turn. I became very busy and hardly have time for family or myself. Presently, a typical day for me starts at 5am and ends at 11pm. My phone is hardly at rest.”
Nurse Moore said that her mother, with whom she shares a home, though very supportive of her career, is beginning to get worried over the long hours that she works.
She added that her spouse, who is also very supportive of her career, sometimes says, “Babe you need to rest!”
However, for this hardworking frontline worker, rest does not come easy these days.
On days off, it is time to take on some household chores, and prepare for work the next day.
Regarding her social life, Nurse Moore quipped: “That is totally non-existent…dead!”
And this situation is not just due to her long hours of work but to all the restrictions, such as the ongoing curfew brought on by COVID-19, she declared.
Despite all this, Nurse Moore remains optimistic, and continues to do her best.
“I really love my job. I love caring for people when they are ill and nursing them back to health. I also strive to help maintain good health, in persons who are not sick. Nursing is all I know to do, as it’s the only field I’ve ever worked in,” she said.
For such commitment and perseverance, even in the face of fear and the numerous challenges, Kaieteur News takes pleasure in according this hardworking health professional, the title of “Frontline Worker of the Week.”