Nurses benefitting from ‘Critical Care Nursing Programme’

Oct 03, 2011 News 1

Nurses in Guyana are now benefitting from a new programme based on critical care nursing.
The programme was undertaken by the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) as the second module in Cardiovascular Systems was recently completed.
Kaieteur News understands that this module was facilitated by Christy Holshouser, who assisted in finalizing the framework for the delivery of the programme with the assistance of Ms. Elizabeth Farrell, an Emergency Room Nurse, who is also a member of the Operation New Hope Charitable Foundation. Farrell has also been a Nursing Educator for over nine years.
This second module is one of 11 and was conducted in the form of lecture hours at Project Dawn, Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara (ECD), and the GPHC’s Resource Center. There were also clinical sessions in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), High Dependency Unit (HDU), the Caribbean Heart Institute (CHI) and the Male Medical Ward of the GPHC.

some of the 18 nurses who participated in the second module of the Critical Care Nursing Programme being taught by their facilitators.

According to information received from the GPHC, there were 18 participants who benefited from the sessions, while the structure of the said module also included a pre and post-module examination.
The criteria for successful completion of the programme are 65% and 70% in a written and practical examination, respectively.
Nurse Nalini Persaud, one of GPHC’s representative, who is currently attached to the ICU, noted that this module taught and enhanced her knowledge and ability to recognize heart sounds – to be able to differentiate between the normal and abnormal; interpret ‘ECG’ readings; treat patients who are in a crisis–administer CPR among other measures.
This newspaper understands that the nurses also learnt how to administer medication to patients with heart diseases.
With such skills, it is expected that the participants will be better able to make recommendations to the Physicians on the ward and improve their level of participation in the treatment of patients, thus being able to better manage those patients.
Another nurse, Melinda Patterson, the lone representative from the New Amsterdam Regional Hospital, credited this programme for her new profound appreciation for the scope of the Nursing Practice, wherein she no longer sees herself and colleagues as subordinates to the doctor, but they all can work as a ‘team’ to provide the highest quality of care to their patients.
‘This programme revealed that there is so much more that could be done for patients and their families. It has increased my capacity to provide excellent patient care.”
Nurse Sandra Badley, one of the Lindeners who participated in the programme, stated that she learnt that there is a scientific rational for the treatment of patients and she now has a more in depth understanding and a clearer view of how to treat critically ill patients.
She expressed hope that the ICU at the Linden Hospital Complex will soon be operational so that she could apply the knowledge gained from the long awaited programme to a more practical setting.
Yet other nurses such as Holshouser and Farrell reiterated that Guyana’s nurses are very receptive, eager to learn and have a desire to care for their patients in the most professional and compassionate manner, given that the conditions are conducive.
The two professionals plan to return in February next year to complete a module in Hemodynamic Monitoring.

(Kristen Macklingam)