– as it celebrates 73rd anniversary

IN CELEBRATION of the 73rd anniversary of the St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, the institution hosted an open house and exhibition offering free medical services and health information to the general public on Monday.
The event was hosted at the nursing school and saw a large participation of first, second and third-year students.

They did blood pressure testing, provided nutrition advice and spoke to interested individuals about becoming enrolled in the institution.
Director of the School of Nursing, Nurse Elsie Asabere, said the event was held to hear from members of the public.

“We realised that a lot of persons come and they ask questions [and] because we are a private institution they sometimes don’t understand what we stand for. So we decided to do an open house so that anybody can come and ask any question… at the end of the day they would be well informed about the school and what it stands for,” she said.
Asabere added that the medical services provided by the students served not only to help test their practical skills, but would allow for the referral of patients with alarming results to visit the nearby hospital which just could save a life.
One group, which was tasked with demonstrating the types of nutritional diets, especially for persons with compromised kidney functions, told the Guyana Chronicle of the dos and don’ts of healthy eating.
“Guyanese tend to eat whatever they feel like eating but health is a major problem in Guyana,that they don’t really take as something serious until it gets worse,” said nursing student Gregory Abrams.
His group warned that the consumption of alcohol can contribute to obesity and cautioned against the over-consumption of Chinese food, a popular go-to meal for Guyanese, which usually has a high oil content.
They instead encouraged the public to eat more fresh vegetables and fruit, replace soda beverages with water and maintain a low-carb diet which is especially important for diabetic patients.
The hospital’s Deputy Chief Executive Officer (DCEO), Deborrah Ramsay, said the event would help to prepare the nursing students for the practicality of the hospital wards and for emergencies in the real world.

PRACTICAL WORK
“Part of the work they’re learning here is about certain diets, about certain chronic diseases that a person might have and they’re well equipped to give to the patients or the general public coming to this open day, information on their diet. We know high blood pressure is a silent killer so they need to sit down and say to the patient ‘you need to eat certain things, you need to use less salt’. It’s preparing them [the students] for the real world,” she explained.

As Guyana begins to move upwards on the economic ladder due to its recent oil discovery, Ramsey said there will be an even greater need for nurses and for them to meet the needs of the population.
“Nursing is not at any time going to stop because people will always need nursing and hospitals will always need nursing. Guyana is moving in a different direction now [as] the face of Guyana is being put on the map everyday due to oil and gas.
“There’s a lot more that has to be done in terms of getting our human resources together so that we can supply that industry, as well as maintain supply to others,” she highlighted.
She said, too, that similar to many other institutions, the nursing institution has its list of challenges but she hopes to one day obtain additional equipment for practical assignments, a larger school building and to be able to offer degrees in nursing.
In the meanwhile, the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital School of Nursing maintains a good relationship with the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, through which its students receive additional practical training which they then share with their colleagues when they return.

Just last year, the St. Joseph Mercy Hospital School of Nursing received a 100 per cent pass rate at the Nurses State Final Examination and has since expressed its intention to keep this bar high and steady.