Forty medical personnel, who graduated from the Ministry of Health’s Information Technology Training Course yesterday, will now be able to merge their health care skills with technological advances to offer better services.
The course, which commenced last March but was concluded this month owing to delays, was funded by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). Other bodies like the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) and I-TECH were involved in the joint effort to make health care professionals “technology literate”.
Nurses, multi-purpose technicians and one medic graduated yesterday. Crystal Pindoo, Keith Alonzo and Althea Simon were the best graduating students. Sisters Arjune, Lackicharran and Florez were among those who graduated with merit.
An upcoming medical student, Praksh Sugrim, was among those who received a token in recognition of his performance. Sugrim was the student who showed greatest determination. The young man told Stabroek News yesterday that the labs were the most challenging part of the course for him.
Minister within the Ministry of Health Dr Bheri Ramsarran, during his address at Ramphal House, said the programme started “humbly” as a basic provision for health workers when the Health Ministry noticed that many had not been given the option to become computer literate.
Among the initial constraints of the programme, Ramsarran said, was the fact that it started using existing resources in an environment that was already resource poor. So far 133 persons have been trained under the programme but twice as much, the minister said, could have benefited were it not for several delays.
Ramsarran expressed thanks to PAHO, I-TECH and CDC for their assistance. PAHO, he said, was able to provide the ministry with used computers which greatly expanded the stock and allowed for a larger number of health care professionals to be trained. The course started with only seven persons but the numbers quickly grew and the operation was eventually expanded to the Health Ministry’s Liliendaal annex. There were some challenges involved in the operation shift, Ramsarran explained, because it took almost a year to get the computers moved there from the Ministry of Health and another several months to get the operation going. CDC, the minister said, “was instrumental in upgrading” the space at Liliendaal. Health care professionals were urged by Ramsarran to take advantage of this and other Ministry of Health courses. He pointed out that had the course been pursued privately it would have cost as much as $170,000. The ministry had arranged for all classes to be held after working hours so that it would be more accessible but the 5 pm-7 pm and 7 pm-9 pm sessions of the course had not been popular.
Dr Wallis Best Plummer, Country Director of I-TECH Guyana, explained that the company took special interest in the programme since many of its products were electronically based. I-TECH, Plummer said, thought it important to play a role in training persons who utilize its services and products.
“We see our contribution as directly helping the Ministry of Health,” she said.
Meanwhile, Dr La Mar Hasbrouck, Director/Chief of Party of the CDC Global AIDS Program in Guyana, told graduates that the training added to their value on the health care market and encouraged them to continuously aim at furthering their education.
“Learning is the beginning of wealth, learning is also the beginning of health,” Hasbrouck stated.
