Our Frontline Worker of the Week is… Nurse Mellissa Gilbert

Apr 18, 2021 News

“Frontline workers often undertake some tasks that many are too timid and scorned to do. We go above and beyond the call of duty and, with this pandemic, we are constantly risking our lives and that of our families to protect others.”

By Vanessa Braithwaite

Kaieteur News – Navigating a pandemic has been challenging for everyone, but for frontline healthcare workers, it has brought on unprecedented challenges that have tested their true love for the profession in many ways. For the nurses in Linden, in addition to navigating the trials that came with providing services while trying to safeguard themselves from the contagious COVID-19 virus, they were forced to endure even more struggles. This included but was not limited to the lack of some resources, particularly Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) which would have at least made them feel safer while risking their lives.

Nurse Mellissa Gilbert.

As a result of this, the nurses took to the streets in October of last year in order to protest for risk allowances and better working conditions. Recently they have found themselves right back on the streets calling for better working conditions, among other things.
Fuelling this new wave of protests was disparaging comments made by the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Linden Hospital Complex (LHC), Rudolph Small. He had said that the nurses would leave their posts at nights to engage in extra marital affairs.

: A passionate nurse on a noble mission.

This was made public, this publication was informed, via a recorded interview.
For the nurses, this has been too much to bear. While they have returned to work many times in the past after protesting, they are now engaged in one for the “long haul” and this they said will continue until their demands are met. These include the removal of CEO Small, the improvement of their working conditions relative to timely supply of drugs, PPE, better representation and increased emoluments, including the provision of risk allowance.

ON THE FRONTLINE
One brave and revolutionary nurse, Mellissa Gilbert, has been on the frontline of the protest and she has been making representation for her colleagues at any possible forum. This Registered Nurse has been protesting from day one, even braving the weather to lead her colleagues in the various marches across the mining town

. The move in this direction, Nurse Gilbert said, is a deliberate attempt by the nurses to sound their voices to the relevant authorities.
But Gilbert is now among a set of protesting nurses who have each received a correspondence noting their absence from duty to participate in the ongoing protest action. The nurses have been warned that their salaries will be cut as a result.
However, the young and very passionate Nurse Gilbert believes that frontline workers, such as nurses, should be respected at all cost. “Frontline workers are human beings and respect is a human right. Like Lauryn Hill (the singer) said, ‘respect is just a minimum’ and what was said about us is not only disrespectful but damaging to our character,” she said.
“Frontline workers provide too much of an invaluable service, particularly during a pandemic, to be spoken of in such low regard,” she added.
According to her too, “Frontline workers often undertake some tasks that many are too timid and scorned to do. We go above and beyond the call of duty and, with this pandemic, we are constantly risking our lives and that of our families to protect others.”

NOBLE CAUSE
The importance of the protest, she posited, is to “provide a voice and a platform for a group of revolutionists and while their jobs might be on the line for now, it is important to continue, to create that change for those to enter the profession in years to come.”
Gilbert said she joined the field of nursing to make a difference in people’s lives and she will fight for any cause that will enable her to make that difference effectively and efficiently. With the present circumstances at the hospital, she said, “a nurse is only going to work to mark time, but when you cannot provide that quality of health care because everything is lacking, then it makes one’s mandate null and void.”
“I joined the field because I wanted to do something that’s intriguing, challenging and make a difference in people’s lives. It was my mother’s dream to become a nurse, but she never had the opportunity…instead she provided that opportunity for me and now gets to live that dream through me but working under duress at LHC creates unfavourable working conditions and causes undue stress to us. It is difficult for any individual to function efficiently in an environment where they are not comfortable,” she intimated.
Continuing, she said, “there is still a lack of resources, and presently, we are being victimized and threatened with salary cuts for absenteeism for the period in which we are engaged in industrial action.”

NOT INTIMIDATED
Earlier in the pandemic, Gilbert related that nurses were harassed by police officers while making their way home from work. She recalled instances too, when they were discriminated against by members of the public. But the worse treatment, she said, has been the “persecution” meted out by those in authority “who are supposed to lead and represent us.” This, Gilbert said, she and her colleagues “cannot come to grips with.”
The CEO, she said, was rehired by the Ministry of Health one day after he was fired for his disparaging remarks. Ever since, she added, the nurses have not been engaged by anyone in authority at the Ministry of Health.
However, a few weeks ago, the nurses met with the Prime Minister, Brigadier (Ret’d) Mark Phillips, and Minister of Public Works, Juan Edghill. They were able to voice their concerns then. In fact, Gilbert said, they were promised that the accusations put forward will be investigated. To date, she noted, no one has reached out to the nurses. Instead, she said, they were slapped with letters informing them of salary cuts and dismissal on the third strike of warning.
But Gilbert has maintained that she and the other nurses will not be intimidated by anyone whose intent is to disrespect or disregard their rights, even as she committed to “continue to take the front seat in the fight for betterment.”