The Tribune

EDITOR, The Tribune.

Before God and those assembled here, I solemnly pledge to adhere to the code of ethics of the nursing profession.

Once viewed as lowly doctors’ assistants, nurses are now recognised as highly specialised professionals with a wide range of skills. Today, becoming a nurse requires four years of study and extreme focus and dedication. This versatile career with dozens of specialties is a crucial link between patients and doctors.

It is with great respect we join the nurses on the twelfth of May as they celebrate the birthday of Florence “The Lady with the Lamp“ Nightingale.

Having spent extended stays as a patient in both Princess Margaret and Doctors Hospitals, I can fully appreciate the challenges that nurses face daily.

And that is why I can speak with authority when I say that nursing is the most dedicated, hardworking, underpaid, undervalued, and under appreciated of most professions anywhere.

Many of us faint at the sight of blood and are even scornful of our own excrement. Yet there is no other job that I can think of where persons are treated with such disdain.

Most times patients and their families fail to see the value that nurses bring. Nurses are there caring for us from the day we are born until the day we die.

They offer support and comfort during some of the most trying times, but all too often, we don’t say thank you. We take their service for granted.

The good thing about our nurses, just like their predecessor and heroine Florence Nightingale, they have answered the call to serve humanity. They are overworked, underpaid, and abused, yet they are still there bathing, feeding, and turning bodies and beds.

This isn’t about making a big deal about how well they do their jobs. It’s about caring, sharing, and having a shoulder to cry on. It’s those moments that can make a difference in a hospital experience.

It’s about answering the call. A call that causes them to understand that sickness and sorrow have no master.

Throughout my day, I have the good fortune of seeing nurses go over and above the call of duty.

The community nurses as they visit the sick and elderly. I call them Nightingales. You would have to see them in action to appreciate what they do.

They have to visit homes and treat patients in which relatives leave their parents and siblings alone all day in untidy, unsanitary conditions, with very little concern for their welfare.

And then there is Sister Newton at the Flamingo Gardens Clinic, Nurse Novella at oncology, the nurses at A&E, and, the nurses at Fleming Street, and Nurse Ellis in the midwifery postnatal services.

They answered the call.

The Health Minister Dr Darville has inherited a ministry burdened with myriad challenges. But it is nothing new to him, he has been there before.

My most recent stay in the Princess Margaret Hospital was in January of this year and it affirmed my way of thinking about the treatment one receives from the doctors and nurses.

They are doing a fantastic job.

During my time spent in the hospital on several occasions, I was cussed out for speaking to another patient about his lack of respect for the nurses.

“Come on pal she is your nurse, not your waitress, not your servant, or your punching bag. This is a hospital, not a Pub. Show some respect.”

We hear complaints about the treatment in the hospital all of the time but....

My question to everyone is it the treatment or the expectation?

Are we expecting the same treatment one would receive in a private facility with personal nurses?

Another concern is what are we doing to assist the nurses in making our loved ones sojourn more comfortable as they heal?

Are we reading the Bible to them, sharing scriptures, and praying with them?

Or running on about the treatment.

Yes, A&E, is a challenge but that is the way they are just about all over the world, especially in the Caribbean.

Have you ever seen the A&E at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Florida? Maybe if you did you would see PMH differently.

By the way how many of us have had the unfortunate experience of being in the Accident and Emergency ward on most of the weekends when shooting and accident victims are brought in at all hours of the day?

Are the nurses to be blamed for the carnage?

Many times the ones complaining the most are the ones doing the least. They are the ones leaving their relatives at the mercy of the state.

For the record, some of the best meals I have had in a long time were at the PMH.

The steamed mutton was to die for.

Say what you want, but based on my experience, I believe the Bahamas has some of the best nurses in the world and they should be appreciated and highly compensated for all they do.

I believe if the Minister could find the money, he would give the nurses an increase in pay right away. Because he is around them all of the time, he knows what they go through on a daily basis.

Every day, you hear people comparing the Bahamas with Miami. The streets are much better, how nicer the hospitals are, and how well they treat their aged citizens.

The wider community criticises the Ministry of Health for the condition of the healthcare facilities. But they do not want to pay for hospital visits.

Well, according to Minister Myles Laroda, National Insurance is in trouble, but as soon as he mentions an increase in payments the people go berserk.

However, where is the money going to come from to pay pensioners and take care of societal needs? Who is going to help the poor, the elderly, and those who through no fault of theirs are in need?

Thank God for the soup kitchens that are doing a great job helping to take care of those in need. But they can only do so much.

Thank you, Nurses, for all you are doing for all of your sacrifices. We love and appreciate you.

Happy International Nurses Day. You deserve it.

God bless you.

God bless the Bahamas.

ANTHONY PRATT

Nassau,

May 7, 2023.