Nurses trained in critical care
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DPI, Guyana, Wednesday, June 13, 2018
Thirteen (13) nurses have been trained to deliver critical care including psycho-social support to patients and their families even as they are on a course of recovery.
The recently graduated nurses underwent eight months of rigorous training and are attached to Suddie Regional Hospital, Bartica Regional Hospital, the Linden Hospital Complex, New Amsterdam Regional Hospital, Georgetown Public Hospital and the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital.
Graduate, Tiffany Blair, a Registered Nurse at the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital told the Department of Public Information (DPI), she was eager to return to her place of work to practise what she had learnt: “The journey has been an amazing one, it was very informative, it had a lot of details and it will help us to nurse patients back to health.”
Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Public Health, Colette Adams told DPI that more nurses have been targetted to access specialised training and this goes along with the use of technology in modernising the health delivery landscape.
The third batch of nurses was able to benefit from a specially designed programme where mental health was incorporated into the curriculum. This was so in light of the need for more attention to be placed on the impact on mental health from illnesses.
Registered Nurse, Coretta Alves from the Suddie Regional Hospital told DPI critical care now mandates a nurse to move beyond just giving medication. Mental health education, she says, equips nurses with the skills to communicate and interact with their patients.
“Nursing has a lot to do with people’s mental faculty…because sickness does not just affect the body but it affects the mind and as a nurse, you need to know how to deal with that.”
This time around, those who were previously trained now became the preceptors for the most recent graduates. The critical care training programme for nurses is made possible through collaboration between MoPH’s Health Sciences and Education Faculty, the Pan American Health Organisation and the World Health Organisation (PAHO/WHO) and the University of St. Joseph, Connecticut, United States of America.
Thirty-two Critical Care Nurses were trained in 2011 and 2014 with the educational aspect of this training facilitated by the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Health Systems and Services Advisor, PAHO/WHO Dr. Paul Edwards took the opportunity to charge the nurses, shedding the light on the important role they play in saving lives. “We are all cognisant that clinical care is a multidisciplinary approach to the management of seriously ill medical, surgical and obstetric patients…. As critical care nurses you care for patients who are acutely or critically ill and ensure that they receive the best possible care.”
By: Delicia Haynes.
Images: Keno George.