AIMING to play a significant role in the government’s goal of modernizing the health infrastructure, the Georgetown American University is striving to provide well-rounded professionals who can cope with the current demands.

Dr. Portia Sami, the university’s provost, made these remarks during an interview with the Guyana Chronicle on Saturday.

During a medical outreach at the Giftland Mall, which sought to educate the public on prostate cancer, Dr. Sami said that the institution’s goal is to produce students who are versatile in all domains, not just in their medical skills.

Speaking more about the growing university, she said: “We are seeking and we have been improving the quality of education we offer to our students. More so, we’ve been expanding a range of programmes that we offer. We primarily train doctors and nurses, but we have other short programmes.”

Dr. Sami then went on to say that the government’s goal of modernising the healthcare infrastructure definitely needs professionals, since no system can manage without them.

She remarked: “No healthcare system can function without health workers and so we are ensuring that our health workers or our students are adequately trained…We [are] prepared, so in terms of how we are preparing them to meet the needs of the government, we embrace technology…”

Meanwhile, the dean of the institution, Dr. Ruth Benjamin-Huntley, told this publication that the outreach was an opportunity to showcase that their students possess both sharp health and social skills.

She related: “It’s also an opportunity for us to highlight the medical school because the young doctors are trained not only to serve the public, but other aspects of health.”

While speaking on why the outreach tackled prostate cancer in particular, she said that the sickness is one that is often overlooked. Therefore, they decided to shed some light on one of the most prevalent cancer types.
Noting that no one likes to hear the word “cancer,” Dr. Benjamin-Huntley said: “We do have quite a number of prostate cancer cases in Guyana and so we thought it would have been a good opportunity to highlight to the public, particularly [a] domain where women are not excluded, what prostate cancer is all about.”

“Nobody likes to hear the word cancer regardless of where it gets in the body,” she explained.

While persons flocked the booth and picked up brochures with the intention of learning more, the dean was thrilled to see the usually ignored medical sickness gathering attention.

Dr. Benjamin-Huntley, while speaking more on prostate cancer said: “It is a cancer that can be treated. It is a cancer that doesn’t necessarily mean that [one’s] lifestyle has to change dramatically and so we just want to ensure that persons know what prostate cancer is all about.”

September was designated as Prostate Cancer Awareness Month in an effort to educate men about the horrid sickness, which is Guyana’s third most common cancer type.