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Nursing Assistant Candessa Bowen
Our Frontline Worker of the Week is…
By Sharmain Grainger
Sharing a moment with some of her colleagues.
Kaieteur News – With just one year under her belt in the nursing profession, it could be deduced that Candessa Bowen’s entry into the local health care system was just in time to be on the frontline in 2020, to help slay the dreaded COVID-19 disease.
Candessa, a Nursing Assistant, who received her training at the Kingston Annexe of the Georgetown School of Nursing, was driven to delve into this field, not for personal gratification or merely an income, but rather to avenge the death of her parents by better understanding their killers.
The parents, both victims to non-communicable diseases, passed away in 2006. But this dilemma somehow wooed the last of their six children into the nursing field. Instead of sinking into a state of depression, Candessa channelled the rage and the pain that came with losing her parents into a passion to help save lives.
Frontline Worker, Nursing Assistant Candessa Bowen.
Prepared to take on COVID-19.
“The death of my parents while I was still young, led me into this career path that I am in today,” said Candessa when asked who influenced her professional choice.
Born to Terrence McLennan, an electrician, and his wife, Jennifer Florence McLennan, a sales representative, on August 21, 1985, Candessa, the baby of the family, was raised at Queenstown Village on the Essequibo Coast. She attended the Queenstown Nursery School, the Taymouth Manor Primary School and the Anna Regina Multilateral School.
During her schooling days, among her favourite pastime was planting. But a career in Botany, it would seem, was not written into the script of Candessa’s life.
Currently residing at Plaisance on the East Coast of Demerara, Candessa has no regrets. As a Nursing Assistant at the country’s premier public health institution, the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, she is part of a nursing team driven by the common agenda to help save lives.
“We are the voices of the patient. We help to make their stay easy and comfortable as possible at health centres or clinics or on the wards. Not every patient is able to or communicate properly with the doctors who usually come to visit by teams or in a group…some of them prefer a one-on-one talk and the nurse is the one who is always there,” Candessa, with passionate clarity, explained.
Her adorable offspring.
Always humble and caring.
Reflecting on her own parents, she recalled their travails before passing – her mother in February 2006 from complications caused by cancer and her father in October 2006 from diabetes complications.
Moreover, Candessa had long developed an appreciation for the impact that some diseases can have if not swiftly taken into hand. As such, being a health worker comes quite naturally to her, especially around this prevailing pandemic which requires the implementation of several measures to keep the disease at bay.
Her contribution to the local COVID-19 fight entails helping to educate patients, family members and others on the importance of staying safe through proper hygienic techniques, social distancing and wearing a mask. She is also required to facilitate a process during which persons are asked to provide some details about their health. “You have to find out about their health…if they have any cough, cold, fever, shortness of breath…and I love meeting people and talking with them,” quipped Candessa.
Communicating with patients and being understanding at the same time, she noted, are crucial traits that health workers must portray during these troubling times, if they are to reap favourable results. For Candessa this is certainly not a tedious task “because I love what I do and that is helping people.”
Although she knows a few persons who contracted the disease, Candessa is not worried about becoming infected, especially in the line of the duty, since she takes every precaution when delivering needed care. “I make sure at all times, while on duty, to always be in my PPE gears and I always do proper hand-washing and I also social distance,” she was happy to share.
In taking every precaution this mother to 11-year-old Neville and nine-year-old Nethaniah, chooses to abstain from quality family time to ensure their safety.
But she does find some time to attend church, a practice, she believes, that has helped to shape her into the humble and caring person she is today.
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