─ GPHC celebrates Nurses Week 2022
The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) on Thursday celebrated International Nurses Day, by showing appreciation for the hard working and dedicated nurses who care for the citizens daily.
In an invited comment, Noshella Lalckecharan, a nurse who has given 55 years of service at the public hospital explained what it takes to become a successful health care provider.
“You have to really like it. You have to like nursing, you have to like people, and if you don’t like people then it’s no point you coming and do nursing. You have to be a caring person so that when patients come into the hospital, you’re able to interact with them and make them feel as if they’re at home, you have to show them that sort of empathy and you give them what they need,” she said.
She is encouraging persons to join the nursing profession saying it is a “good” career path to follow.
Speaking at the ceremony, Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, M.P., reminded the nurses about the importance of being passionate about their job and creating a friendly environment for patients and their families.
“When you came into the profession, I think you came because you really want to serve humanity, and you came because you had empathy and compassion, and you want to help people, and by and large you have to maintain that passion day in and day out. And, it takes a lot sometimes to do that. It’s not only working with patients, but it’s also how you work with the relatives of those patients because people want to know what’s happening with their loved ones, and very often it’s how you interact with people that you can either build them up or you can make them more vulnerable,” he said.
Dr. Anthony said government is using every opportunity to provide better training courses and practices for persons looking to pursue a career in nursing.
“It’s also important that we look at how we train our nurses, and right now with three public schools with a capacity of probably about 100 nurses per year, we’re not going to be able to train enough nurses for the services that we require.”
He said the ministry is currently exploring ways in which nurses could haveblended training; meaning both online and face to face interaction.
Nurses’ week is being celebrated under the theme “Nurses, a voice to lead, invest in nursing and respect rights to secure global health.”