THE lack of peer reviewed Guyanese focused research among nurses and midwives is finally being addressed with the Guyana Nurses Association’s (GNA) launching of the “Guyana Nurses and Midwives Research Network”.

The launch was held at the association’s Charlotte Street headquarters on Thursday.
The network seeks to promote scholarly exchange and collaboration among nursing and midwifery researchers, academia and students, with research produced expected to be published and disseminated through an annual journal.

The initiative was hailed as a means of highlighting the potential of nurses and midwives in Guyana, as well as opening the door to encourage evidence-based nursing and midwifery care in Guyana’s health care system as well as being a useful tool to shape health policies across Guyana.

Repeated and fervent calls were made for nurses all across the country to join the network and get involved in producing needs-driven health research. The programme is not only open to nurses pursuing master’s and doctorate programmes but nurses at all levels.
“Research is very important to us as nurses,” GNA President Cleopatra Barkoye said as she delivered remarks at the launch.

“In Guyana, when we hear the word research, we shy away from it, we become afraid, but the importance of research is the fact that that’s how we practise. Research affects policy-making to help us to move on as a profession.”

It was during the GNA’s 90th anniversary celebrations last year that there was renewed call for a structured research framework among nurses and midwives in Guyana. Determined not to let the initiative fall to the wayside, the GNA decided to take action.
“One of the proposals coming forward was the fact that nurses need a forum to show forth their research. The medical doctors have that so we want nurses to have a forum. Persons would do research from time to time, and we want them to showcase what they can do,” Barkoye explained.

Chief Nursing officer Linda Johnson-McIntyre called the initiative “a plus to the profession”.

TIMELY
“This initiative is one that is very much timely for this era that we are in. I have great expectations for the network. Research is essential for the development of knowledge that will enable nurses and midwives to give evidence-based care to the patients. Through these researchers we will also be able to enhance workplace culture and staff well-being,” Johnson-McIntyre said.

The initiative is being headed by midwifery specialist Gillian Butts-Garnett, who delivered an overview and emphasised the need for research among the nurses and midwives.

“There was [a] clarion call for research to be ongoing and continue. This research network intends to do this, I am therefore proud to kick start this research network. We expect that the research network will bring together nurses and midwives researchers, and be a platform for them to collaborate, exchange information,” she noted.

She, however, cautioned that even as nurses go forward with this new initiative, attention must be paid to the ethical boundaries and best practices under which the research must be done.

“It’s about promoting innovation and creativity in research, but it’s also about maintaining the highest standards of integrity. Even as we launch and put together research studies here, we have to remember the core values of why we are doing research and ensure we do not cross any boundaries of ethics,” she noted.

Always a staunch supporter of nursing research, former coordinator of the Bachelor’s of Science Degree in Nursing (BScN) at the University of Guyana Gwendolin Tross had much praise for the initiative. In 2016, Tross had launched the Gwen Tross Research Foundation which financially awards BSc Nursing students at the University of Guyana to advocate best practices in nursing research.

“We have moved tremendously forward over the years but there’s no opportunity really to read the achievements of nurses. We’re not aware of what’s going on around us, and it is time we change it. Thanks to Gillian, we are moving forward,” Tross said.

She added: “There’s a positive impact that this can have on the administration of quality health care, and most importantly, the advancement of nursing as a profession. Please, please come on board and make this a powerful force. There is strength in numbers and I’m pleading with you to take the message out there that you must come on board. It is time that we rise and we have a wonderful opportunity to do just that. Come on board, it will benefit you in so many ways.”

The research network will be managed by a five-member voluntary board with members appointed by the GNA and expected to serve a three-year term. There will be sub-committees to overlook the journal, research training, partnerships and memberships and research quality.