Ten more students have graduated from the Ortho-paedic Technician Training Programme that is being administered by the Georgetown Public Hospi-tal Corporation (GPHC), which is interested in expanding the training.
All ten students who were enrolled in the year-long programme, which is now in its fifth year, graduated yesterday.
Eight of the students are from Guyana, including one from Mahaica and another from Mahdia, and the remaining two are from the Belize.
“This is an exceptional group of students because today we are graduating with two distinction students and the remainder of the class all have credits,” new programme coordinator, Dr Kaaleshwar Ramcharran, proudly said.
Ramcharran, who was among the doctors responsible for training, explain-ed that for the first five months of the programme the students were exposed to lectures and practicals, which were supervised by senior technicians and orthopaedic doctors.
In the first eight months, they were introduced to the main operating theatre, where in addition to being trained as orthopaedic technicians, they were trained as orthopaedic scrub nurses and surgical assistants.
During the period, they were continuously being evaluated with numerous assessments, assignments, and a final examination.
Ramcharran added that after the students completed their eight months and passed the examination, they participated in four-month long internships.
Ramcharran told Stabroek News that while the GPHC has been training orthopaedic technicians for more than five years, the programme was only made official five years ago. He explained that the programme that is currently ongoing is the only one in the Caribbean and the hospital has plans to expand it.
“This current batch is special. In addition to being orthopaedic technicians, they have also received extra training in other areas, which got us to thinking about taking it further. We are considering having another programme run along with this one which would be the spinal care programme,” he added, while stating that they are also looking to expand the number of students in each batch and having students come from other Caribbean countries to participate. “It’s still a thought and there are no solid plans that have been laid out as yet but we want to do it,” he said.
Acting CEO of GPHC Alan Johnson and acting Chief Medical Officer of the Ministry of Public Health Jeetandra Mohanlall also praised the dedication and persistence of both the students and the doctors who lectured them, and urged the graduates to always seek to improve themselves, regardless of where they will be stationed.
