Our Frontline Worker of the Week is… Public Health Nurse, Michelle Jagnarine-Bhagwandin

Sep 05, 2021 News

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“Please love yourself, value life, protect yourself and love one another. God says we must use wisdom…vaccines are not curable medicine but preventable, so being vaccinated can mean the difference between life and death.”

By Sharmain Grainger

Kaieteur News – Many people were hopeful that by now COVID-19 would have become a thing of the past and life pre-2020 style would have resumed. But with each passing month hope for this hallelujah moment dwindles as the disease daily forces more of the infected to tap out of the game life.

As if the scourge of COVID-19 has not been bad enough from its inception, word from the experts tracking the disease is that it has become even deadlier – evident by the track record of the Delta variant. Although vaccines have been touted as mankind’s salvation, many people are still resisting this shield of protection.
Despite this worrying state of affairs, health workers on the frontline have not lost hope. In fact, they have been valiantly fighting on in much the way humans have for centuries.

Frontline Nurse
Among those on the frontline in this corner of our world is a nurse by the name of Michelle Jagnarine-Bhagwandin. Though Nurse Jagnarine-Bhagwandin would much rather enjoy more quality time with her family, the health professional side of her has recognised that her country needs her more than ever if any semblance of normalcy is to be restored.
Presently, her role in the COVID-19 fight is as a vaccinator operating out of the country’s premier public health institution – the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). “I think because of my Public Health experience this has made me suitable,” said Nurse Jagnarine-Bhagwandin of her designated role.
Despite the known risks, she admitted that factors such as “this beautiful nation of ours” and “my love for humanity” help to keep her focused on the mission.

“I always like to see people healthy and despite what we are faced with, I will continue to serve,” she assured.
To help alleviate her exposure, she daily safeguards herself by adhering to strict hygiene measures, social distancing, always wearing a mask and the use of personal protective equipment while on duty. She also opted to boost her protection by taking two jabs of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.

As wife to Rajendra Bhagwandin and mother to two children – Aaron and Arianna Bhagwandin – Nurse Jagnarine-Bhagwandin is always conscious of the importance of keeping safe since, according to her, COVID-19 has taught her to “value life and how precious it is to see the break of a new day.”
“I’m a family-oriented person who loves to see my family happy,” said our featured Public Health nurse as she listed evening strolls with her family at weekends among her favourite pastimes.

Born to Nandram and Amreetee Jagnarine on November 19, 1983, as the elder of two girls, she grew up in the Vryheid’s Lust North, East Coast Demerara community. She attended the Pindola Nursery School, then Montrose Primary School before heading to the Cummings Lodge Secondary School. By the time she had completed her secondary education she was eager to join the nursing profession to become like her aunt, Savitrie Balram, who was a Registered Nurse at the GPHC. Because of her aunt, she admitted, becoming a nurse was her first and only career choice.
Noble Profession
Trained at the Georgetown School of Nursing, she has been a nurse for 16 years and has held the position of Public Health nurse for the past nine. “Nursing is a noble profession that aids the sick in recuperation back to health. Nurses are with the patients throughout the continuum of life…nurses are teachers, advocates, caregivers, critical thinkers and innovators. They help patients and families learn to become healthy by helping them through the range of emotional, physical, mental and cultural experiences they encounter during illness. Nurses have been at the forefront of change in health care,” Nurse Jagnarine-Bhagwandin detailed with pride.
As such being a nurse on the frontline as the country wages war against the pandemic comes naturally to her. But even she is fully aware that those within the health sector can only do so much. For this reason, Nurse Jagnarine-Bhagwandin is hopeful that unvaccinated persons will choose to be vaccinated to at least boost their defence against the novel coronavirus causing disease. “Please love yourself, value life, protect yourself and love one another. God says we must use wisdom…vaccines are not curable medicine but preventable, so being vaccinated can mean the difference between life and death,” our featured frontline health worker warned.

 

 

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