| By Sharmain Grainger“It cannot be seen as a career to just get money. You have to try not to think about the hours you areNurse Claudette Powellworking or the money you are getting,” said Nurse Claudette Powell.In June she will celebrate a 40-year milestone in the nursing profession. The native Jamaican, who has for a number of years been residing in the United States, has worked in all areas of nursing. And during an interview with this publication she reminisced on her extensive nursing career.“I have worked in the hospital setting, and I strongly believe that all nurses should pay their dues at the bedside…I did 10 years of that, and 10 years I did home health care. I was into management and adjunct teaching. For the past 10 years I have been into consulting,” disclosed Powell.She also has a keen focus on regulatory affairs including policies, procedures and compliance related to the nursing profession.She has held influential positions including President of the Jamaica Nurses Group of New York, the oldest Caribbean Nurses Organisation; President of the Caribbean American Nurses Association, which represents at least 10 territories, including Guyana, and she has also chaired the Jamaica Diaspora Health Sector in the US.She was the recipient of the prestigious Governor General Award last year for exemplary leadership in the health field on behalf of the Jamaican Diaspora. She currently holds the position of Vice President of the Jamaica Nurses Group of New York.Powell, during a recent interview, recalled entering the nursing profession back in the day because she really wanted to take care of people. “A little girl would say to you, ‘I want to be a nurse because I want to take care of people’ – that was the bottom line. But unfortunately that has since changed,” she considered as she mused over concerns surrounding the whole notion of nursing today.But, according to her, the nursing profession is that that must embrace empathy, and is intended to be farther reaching than merely a patient in a hospital bed. She posited that nursing care should take into consideration the whole family and even how it will take care of a sick love one.“You have to have feelings for this family that is grieving…unfortunately there are different reasons, I think, why the way nurses operate today has changed and I think it has to do with how they (nurses) are taken care of.“They are not being paid (enough), although you are not supposed to look at the money, they still need to be paid well,Mens Air Jordan 3 Retro 88 White Fire Red-Cement Grey-Black 580775-160,” said Powell as she considered that in developing countries like Guyana, the situation is likely to be worse when compared to developed countries like the United States.“The attitude is likely to be worse because of low income, they don’t feel valued, they don’t feel respected,” speculated Powell as she pointed to the lack of regulations to control the behaviours of nurses.In the US, for instance, she noted, that medical personnel, including nurses, have to be cautious about how they speak to patients. “You have to watch it, or you will be out of a job in the United States if you don’t know how to deal with patients; you could be sued,” she related.She disclosed, “There are times when you are in the US that you can tell when someone migrated from a Caribbean country. They become so frustrated because they cannot get away with treating patients anyhow.”And it is simply because nursing is being seen as a ‘second career’ by some people that the prestige formerly associated with nursing it has been lost.“You have retired people going into nursing now because there is always a need for health care workers. When you are going to do that I am not sure that you would have the attributes that it takes to be a nurse. So unfortunately we are losing it a bit,” added Powell.And the depreciation of the nursing service, according to Powell, is a rather worrying one, since at some point “we all need to seek some form of nursing care.”And the troubling state of affairs, she added, has even transcended to the care offered by doctors.But remedying the situation, according to Powell, would require the intervention of Government. And she is convinced that among the intervening measures should be a move towards increasing the salaries of medical personnel and improving their general working conditions.“Make the working environment more appealing, cut down on long work hours…If measures are not taken to improve the working condition the first opportunity these people get they are going to leave and we can’t afford to have these people leaving; we need some people to remain and take care of us,” said Powell.She spoke of the brain drain situation that has been plaguing not only Guyana but other Caribbean islands as well.And Powell is only too willing to lend her support to Guyana to help transform the nursing profession. She currently sits on the Advisory Board of the Ministry of Health in Jamaica. “If the nursing Association here asked for help, even if it is not me, I have several colleagues who will be willing and able to come and do some consulting and share best practices.”And lending support, Powell said, is certainly not a dictatorial process but rather a fact finding mission is the key. “You have to hear from the people in the system,” said Powell as she recalled conducting such a process in Jamaica sometime ago which yielded the desired outcome.Just recently Powell, who is Vice President of the Guyana-Jamaica Friendship Association (GJFA) which has a keen focus on helping to improve health and education in the two territories, was involved in a mini fact finding mission during a visit to Suddie, Essequibo Coast.Guyana born, Dr. Frank Denbow is President of GJFA.“We will leave with information and then we could talk about it and see how we can help even in some small way,” said Powell as she reiterated her willingness to share her expertise with not just the two Caricom member states but others as well. |
