Five nurses and eight retirees were honoured for their exceptional performance and dedicated service to the health sector by the management of the New Amsterdam Hospital as part of the health institution’s observance of International Nurses’ Day.
Under the theme “Closing the Gap: Millennium Development Goals,” International Nurses’ Day was celebrated globally last Sunday on the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth.
To mark the occasion, the NA Hospital held a simple appreciation ceremony for its nurses. “Nurses work very hard,” said Matron Lykens who divulged that over 90% of the more than 2,000 babies born in 2012 in Region 6, were delivered by the 22 midwives and 7 staff midwives in Clinical Care.
“Somebody ought to award these nurses; they are underpaid and over worked,” said Matron Lykens. She further disclosed that after reviewing the performances of the nurses over the past year, the hospital’s management decided they were “not going to wait for the public or the media to acknowledge the work that you [nurses] do,” but rather they were going to “publicly say thank you for the hard work you [nurses] have done.” The appreciation ceremony was organised as a way to publicly laud the nurses for a job well done and to urge them to continue striving for excellence.
Medical Superintendent of the hospital, Dr Vishayla Sharma in her remarks to the nurses said, “Patient care cannot be delivered without the collaborative efforts of nurses and doctors; team work is very important.” Reflecting on the period of her internship, Dr Sharma admitted it was the thoughtfulness of nurses who enabled her to survive trying times, “I remember specifically how good and how wonderful and how thoughtful the nurses were. Because sometimes you are on the job 24/7 and you are tired. I can distinctly remember the times the nurses would call and say Doc, the patient is ok, I administered the medication and you can come in an hour or so, go rest.”
Those acts of kindness Sharma said made her “realise what the beauty of working together rather than in isolation, can produce.” She opined “nursing is more than a profession; it takes a nurse every single day, the ability to combine what you learnt in your classroom – your medical knowledge, to combine that theory with care and compassion to treat patients.
Not everyone can do it.” Adding that, the N A Hospital management was most honoured to recognise the invaluable contribution the nurses have made towards the hospital.
CEO of the hospital, Allan Johnson also commended the nurses for their dedicated years of exceptional service to the health institution. “I know some of you have come straight from high school and into nursing and you have stayed until retirement – it’s a wonderful thing you have done.”
Expressing amazement over those who have dedicated over 35 years to the hospital, Johnson said, “it is not easy to keep motivating yourself each and every day to remain on one job and the fact that you have done it, warrants applause.”
He acknowledged, “We will never have enough nurses to do this job. Nurses are such an important part of this institution: a doctor would diagnose and give treatment, but who nurses these people back to good health? Who spends the most time with them?
“Nurses have the opportunity to impact on patient care more than any other person. A hospital cannot function without nurses.”
Nurses Leilawattie Sawh, Susan Smith, Preyawattie Singh, Nadira Rohaman, and Michelle Mars were each rewarded for their exceptional performance on the job. While retirees Audrey Amsterdam, Champawattie Deodat and Eileen Benons who each dedicated over 35 years of service to the health sector were commended and presented with gifts.
Also rewarded for dedicated service of over 20 years were Carol Felix (30 years of service), Clement Alves (25), Carmen Peters (25), Carol Charles (24) and Yvette Holder (22). A special gift was also presented to Matron Lykens’s secretary Ronda Russell who was dubbed an honorary nurse.
