— If one wants to continue living past youthfulness

By M Margaret Burke
UNLESS people die young, they will live to get old. Do you need to stop and think about

which is preferred? Even though many people, if given a choice, would prefer to remain young through the years, yet they would rather live to an old age than die young. Therefore, since living to a ‘ripe’ old age is preferred to dying young – by most, then what is there to be feared, since old age is the inevitable that lies ahead and must be encountered.

Nurse Joycelyn, sometimes called Nurse Princess is proud to call herself an “old nurse”, who worked in the nursing profession for more than 50 years, even though she officially retired from serving the government after 37 years. “I started working as a nurse-trainee at the age of 18 and then passed many, many exams to retire as a senior nurse at 55. But I never stopped working as a nurse and taking care of people – both privately and publicly. I am now 73 years old and still going strong,” she said.

A shy lady, who is said to be very friendly and helpful in her little village of Plaisance on the East Coast of Demerara, she stated that for all her years of working as a nurse, “I have learnt so much…but on the topic of taking care of the elderly, this is a situation that I feel should really be looked into with much more seriousness; I have a special interest in this,” Nurse Princess said.

This petite lady, stated that her husband died many years ago and that she has no children of her own. However, she shared about caring for many of her nieces and nephews, who are now, “big men and women, having their own families, with lots of children of their own… Some of them really made plenty children,” she

said, even as she smiled broadly.

A new approach
Nurse Joycelyn said that having been exposed to so much with so many people and then retired from public life, as a nurse, she is now prepared to do much more work in an area where she feels that the skills as a retired nurse can do very well. She stated that as a nurse she was exposed to all five stages of life: infancy, childhood, adolescence, adulthood and old age. She explained that the latter can be looked at as that stage in life, which is mostly undesirable for some; one that can be riddled with many adversities, yet an unavoidable stage of life, once people begin to live way beyond that retirement age.

“I feel as if our skills are being wasted, just because we are getting down in age; at the same time people do not recognise how helpful we can be to the elders in their families, who are in need of special attention,” Nurse Princess said, adding that this can be a new approach to ‘Care for the Elderly’ in Guyana, where people who go searching for someone, with some amount of expertise to do the job of taking good care of their loved ones, whether they are sick or enjoying fairly good health in their old age, can get that needed special attention and care.

“There are so many elderly people living in villages across Guyana, as well as in the towns, who need special help…children of a lot of these old people are trying to get help for their old fathers and mothers, or even grandparents and we (the retired nurses) can be of much help if given the chance,” the nurse said.

“In every village and town you can find a large number of retired nurses; some of us doing nothing; we get our pensions because we worked long and hard for those, but that is about it. Some [nurses] live well, others not so well. But many of us are still healthy and strong and have a lot of skills, which we can adequately use to help the elderly in the villages.

Not about money
The nurse stated that it is not just about money. “A nurse is always a nurse – retired or not. However, this that I am talking about is not just about money, even though it can’t be free service every time, but what I am talking about is the skill that we have to help the elderly like ourselves, whether they are mobile or immobile.

“Also, there are some basic care-giving skills, which does not require a doctor, but demand some amount of ‘know-how’ that we can do… from sleeping to being awake; eating; bathing; exercising and more, which we are equipped to do,” she said.

We are not doctors
The nurse offered that regardless of how much they can do to help, in this case, the elderly, “It must be made clear that we are not doctors, but while in hospitals we work as a team, with a clear line drawn as to how far we are allowed to go. Some people did not like this, but I always respected the doctors and followed their instructions – all in the interest of the patients.

“Now, I do some voluntary work to help people here and there; sometimes people even give me ‘something’ for the help I give them for their elders in the family. Some of the big people I have helped are now overseas with their children, but sometimes when they call home to Guyana they would still remember to ask for me,” Nurse Joycelyn proudly said.

She explained that from the little she has seen and also experienced so far with helping the elderly, “mostly around her neighbourhood” she is very certain that utilising the expertise of people like her would go a very far way in making the lives of more of the elderly in Guyana better-off.

Government’s intervention
“So, for people who are now looking for someone to take care of their elderly relative, this should be a new approach…once the senior nurse is able-bodied and willing to take on the task, then consideration should be favourably given to them.”

She went on to say that this is not to say that younger people looking for employment should not be allowed to take care of the elderly too – once they have the interest and necessary skills they should also be given a chance. “After all, young people who need jobs in this field must always be considered,” Nurse Joycelyn posited, even as she underlined her idea of the usefulness of many of the nurses who are now retired.

“Maybe the government should also look at this notion – something good may come out of it because our elderly deserve the very best,” the nurse submitted. mercilinburke2017@gmail.com