TWELVE women, on Friday, became the first batch of healthcare professionals to graduate from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s Central Sterile Supply Unit (CSSU) Technician training programme.
The women, most of whom are Patient Care Assistants (PCA), received their certificates after completing the one-year programme. During the programme, they received training in the area of sterilisation of critical medical and surgical equipment.
According to the CSSU training programme coordinator, Gail Gill, the graduands are now certified as sterilisation unit technicians and will work in the hospital’s CSSU. Other nursing staff will be assigned to the department to work alongside them.
Delivering remarks at the graduation ceremony was the acting Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at the GPHC, Robbie Rambarran, who highlighted the importance of this specialised field within the healthcare sector.
Rambarran further said that when the programme began, some 22 persons were enrolled. He congratulated those who completed the course, and took the step towards continuous learning.
The 12 sterilisation technicians are Merna Agard, Dionne Britton, Rosetta D’Ornellas, Ingrid Emanuel, Juanita Garnett, Mary Jackman, Lisa Jones, Lisa Major, Lashanna Semple, Aleta Singh, Melissa Sturge and Janella Tappin.
The CEO while underscoring the importance of the field which focuses on the safety of patients and sterility, urged the graduands to value the responsibility they now hold and to take it seriously.
While noting that old equipment was once used, Rambarran said that the hospital and unit have come a far way. With that, he revealed that the hospital will be procuring a number of instruments and even a new state-of-the-art steriliser this year.
This, he said is part of the hospital’s significant investment towards improving its services.
