Local nurses receive EMT Certificates of Competence
TWENTY-FIVE (25) nurses recently received Certificates of Competence at the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT) training programme facilitated by the Global Emergency Medicine Initiative (GEMINI), a non-profit organization which is a branch of Rotary International. Among those graduates were sixteen nurses from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
Training was conducted at the Beacon Outreach Ministries at Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara for five days, commencing January 31, 2012.
The nine other participants who received certificates were from the following hospitals:  Dr. Balwant Singh’s Hospital (3 persons); St. Joseph’s Mercy Hospital (3); Davis Memorial Hospital (2); and the Guyana Red Cross Society (1).

IDEAL COMPLEMENT
The Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation’s management was very pleased and enthusiastic about the initiative. They declared that it would complement the Masters Degree in Emergency Medicine programme which is currently being undertaken by three (3) of the GPHC medical doctors under supervision of the Vanderbilt University of Tennessee, USA, one of the GPHC’s longstanding partners.
This training, management said, would also enable the nurses who have been trained to teach the skills acquired to many of their colleagues, in an effort to further enhance the quality of service being provided by the hospital.
The ‘training of trainers’ programme conducted by the Emergency Medical Technicians (EMTs), also known as First Responders, is aimed at educating staff of the participatory hospitals on pre-hospital care.
Commenting on the value of the training, architect of the initiative, Guyanese-born Dr. Ovid Fraser said it is intended to create a knowledge base in Guyana (particularly at the GPHC), with qualified staff who would be  sufficiently competent to deliver this training to their counterparts sometime in the near future.
Meanwhile, GPHC’s Public Relations Officer, Alero Proctor, said future staff training in the field will be done under the supervision of the medical experts who would have facilitated the initial sessions. Their function would be primarily as consultants, while the actual training would be done by those who would have been selected as trainers.
Those participants would have been exposed to training in splinting, bandaging, bagging, suctioning, use of EMT equipment, how to approach and transport patients, and the application of first aid/CPR. These skills and knowledge, Proctor said, would have been demonstrated and/or taught by and to those selected.
GEMINI brought the requisite equipment and supplies for the training, including defibrillators, bandages and collars, all of which were handed over at the certification exercise for use in future training.
Management wishes to thank Dr. Fraser and Mr. Paul Gallagher, founder of GEMINI, and all of the medical experts who shared their invaluable knowledge with the participants. Management has pledged to employ all measures to ensure sustainability of this and other areas of training.