Seasoned nurse/midwife advises nurses on occasion of Nurses Week 

By Telesha Ramnarine 

INDRA Adams started her career in nursing more than 24 years ago on Wakenaam Island in the Essequibo River. The circumstances at the time were not especially favourable, and getting the job done efficiently was much more difficult than it is today, when nurses undoubtedly have better access to resources and training.

Zeelandia, the community where Adams was born and raised, had no health post; the Wakenaam Cottage Hospital was located some distance away. So, as a Community Health Worker (CHW), she had to ride her bicycle to meet the sick people in the community.

Her eldest sister was a nurse, and Adams always admired the manner in which she worked. So, with inspiration from her sister and her natural inclination to help others, she decided to start out as a CHW, assisting the elderly, pregnant women, and children.

“It was very hard back then to get to patients; we had to use our bicycles around the island,” Adams shared in an interview with Pepperpot Magazine. With 10 years of experience as a CHW, Adams left the island to continue working at La Grange Health Centre before training for midwifery.

With such training in hand, she began working at Windsor Forest. By this time, things were much more developed, and she had more resources to work with. Adams, like many other nurses at this time, was able to produce better work.

The challenges aside, though, Adams, who now works at the Den Amstel Health Centre, West Coast Demerara, said the love for nursing has to be there before someone becomes successful at it. “Being a nurse, you really have to love the profession. We all need a job, but you have to love nursing, or you wouldn’t be able to do it.”

And such love moves her to extend herself to others so that she is happy to help them with transportation money to attend clinic or do necessary blood tests. “Sometimes people don’t come to clinic because they don’t have any money, and I would call them and tell them to borrow the passage and I will give them back or I give them the money to do their blood tests because at the end of the day, seeing our patients’ smiles means a lot.”

For those nurses who are rude, unapproachable, and even hostile, Adams reflected that it is true that nurses will have both their good days and their bad ones. “Sometimes we need to leave our problems at the gate and step into our workplaces,” she advised.

At times, it is not the medication that makes sick people feel well; it’s the kindness from someone that will do it, she pointed out.

“We need to treat everyone like they are our family, just how we would want other people to treat our family when they go somewhere for help. We have bad days, but we are here to do our jobs,” the single-parent mother of three said.

Adams, who received several ‘best nurse’ awards from various agencies, was interviewed in the context of Nurses Week, which begins each year on May 6 and ends on May 12.