Our Frontline Worker of the Week is…Midwife, Joycelyn Edwards

Dec 12, 2021 News

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“I enjoy doing what I do, you’ll never hear any of my patients complain about me or what I do, I try to be nice to my patients so they have something good to say about me.”

By Romario Blair

The healthcare system around the world suffered tremendously when COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in 2020; staff shortage being one of the leading issues. In Guyana, there are those who despite the challenges, remained on the job and faithfully executed their duties.
Jocelyn Edwards is among the healthcare workers who dedicatedly stuck to her duties at the Suddie Public Hospital in the Cinderella County. Ms. Edwards has been in the healthcare profession for almost 15 years, and has gained a wealth of experience during her journey as a health care provider.

During an interview with Kaieteur News, the 42-year-old revealed that she is presently employed as a midwife at the medical institution. “As a midwife, we basically deal with pregnant mothers from the time they enter the hospital to the time they’re ready to leave. When they come into the ward, we assist them, if they’re ready to deliver we have to be there in the delivery room, if they’re not, we monitor them and so forth,” Edwards explained.
With a chuckle, she added, “it’s one of those jobs that requires a lot of patience to deal with patients, but I’ve been a midwife for the past nine years, and I’ve realised that if I didn’t truly love what I do, the challenges would’ve been a great stumbling block.”
FORMATIVE YEARS
Ms. Edwards grew up in Danielstown, a community that was bought by freed slaves on the Essequibo Coast. She said that her parents, Elsa and Rupert August, did their utmost to give her a good childhood.
Like most children who emulated their teachers while growing up, Edwards wanted to join the teaching profession. This, she said, did not go as planned, as, “I was a slow learner and when I wrote the common entrance, I didn’t gain the marks to get the secondary school of my choice. But I tried to grasp as much as I can. I was successful in my areas, but I could not have gotten a teaching job then.”
She said that she cultivated a persevering attitude as she wasn’t quite where she wanted to be. “I wasn’t able to get the teaching job, but I didn’t stop there. I worked as a sales girl, waitress, but that wasn’t the kind of work I wanted. I always wanted a government job. So, when the opportunity came for me to join the teaching profession, I took it.”
The foundation
Ms. Edwards career commenced on December 20, 2006. She revealed that she started out as a staff nurse. “Before I did the pre-nursing course, I used to work at other places and so…I did the pre-nursing course, because I hadn’t the qualifications…I had to study Math, English and some other subjects and I was successful afterwards.”

After completing her interview in 2006, Ms. Edwards was appointed to the Suddie Public Hospital. When asked to outline some of the experiences gained, she said, “it was simple, it was kind of strange being in a full-time job, and then you’re left on your own at times. It was exciting and challenging at the same time. There were times when we come up with cases we had never seen before.”
She added, “I worked the female ward, then I was rotated several times to other wards and so, all the while gaining various experiences. I even worked the emergency department.”
Ms. Edwards told Kaieteur News that at some point, she realised that she could be doing more in her profession. “As a nursing assistant you basically assist the doctors with procedures and the staff nurse with procedures too. We use to take care of the patient bed side, grooming them and so, bed bath and sometimes feeding. I’ve been a nursing assistant for five years but I realised that I could give more of myself in a professional sense.”
Advancement
After the five years as a nursing assistant, Edwards took the leap and embarked on a one-year midwifery programme in 2011. This did not come without its challenges, however. Ms. Edwards revealed that the immediate challenge was being away from home, and her daughter, Kimberly Edwards.
She went on to say, “I was a single parent at the time, and grandparents had to take care of my daughter. I know that she was with her grandmother and they’d take care of her but financially it was challenging because I was on training. I had to support myself there, plus assist her with whatever schooling necessity she needed because she had just started secondary school at the time.”

Ms. Edwards told Kaieteur News that one of the keys to coping with her challenge, was endurance. She said that instead of drifting into self-pity, she gained the self-motivation to push through. “I had to cope; I didn’t have a choice because when you need something in this life you got to try. Getting into the programme was a challenge, because when I applied to go, they weren’t accepting me,” she recalled.
She continued, “I said if I don’t get accepted now, I wouldn’t reapply. I put my mind to it and I said it’s now or never and I had to make ends meet somehow or the other. During the training, I was staying at (an area in) West Dem, but still had to cater for the transportation and meals. At the end of the day, it all paid off because in 2012, I came back as a midwife after being successful.”
The joys of midwifery
Joycelyn said initially, she felt the need to do more, and midwifery was also a great opportunity to advance her career in nursing. She admitted that she knew little about what it entailed, or what to expect.
During the course of her studies though, she said that she realised the seriousness of midwifery; a successful delivery can result in lives being saved, something she described as joyous. She said, “From time to time you hear persons say that with pregnancy its one foot in and one foot out. And as I studied, I saw the seriousness of midwifery, because the primary goal is to ensure both lives are saved at the end of a delivery.”

Pandemic impact
When the pandemic reached Guyana’s shores last year, several changes affected her professional routine, said Ms. Edwards. She added, “Due to the fact that last year was the pandemic, we had to immediately deal with limited staff. This came because some persons had to be relocated to the isolation and quarantine departments.”
Another challenge, she said, was the risk of being exposed to COVID-19. “Once you’re on the frontline, or anywhere for that matter, you’re always at risk of contracting COVID-19, because of its asymptomatic nature. Usually our patients are screened, before we admit them, yet again because of its asymptomatic nature, I still take my precautions, because you can never tell who’s infected unless they get tested.”
Edwards said that her love for her job reinforced her endurance to battle through the recent challenges. She said that though staffing was severely challenged, she realised that there were still patients who depended on her for a safe delivery. “I enjoy doing what I do, you’ll never hear any of my patients complain about me or what I do, I try to be nice to my patients so they have something good to say about me,” she said with confidence. In recognising that there will be challenges in dealing with patients along the way, Edwards noted, “if you want them to cooperate with you, then you have to be nice to your patients…it requires patience to deal with patients.”

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