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| Photo: The eight Senior Nurses who completed the Basic Management Course enjoying the evening which ended with a cocktail reception |
Charlestown Nevis (July 19, 2004) A group of Nevisian Senior Nurses has acquired additional skills through the Basic Management Course that is usually conducted in house for senior nurses at the Alexandra Hospital.
The course, which ran during the period March to July 2004, saw some eight senior nurses participating for some 15 hours of intense training. The nurses came from district health centres as well as the hospital. They are Mrs. Jacqueline Dore, Mrs. Joya Parry-Lake, Mrs. Gwenneth Jones- Archibald, Mrs. Janice Williams, Mrs. Jacqueline Thompson, Mrs. Elvirine Bailey-Bussue, Ms Sandra Fredericks and Ms Donna Hanley.
A brief recognition ceremony was held in their honour at the Old Manor Hotel in Gingerland on July 16. Speaking at the ceremony, Acting Matron of the Alexandra Hospital, Mrs. Aldris Pemberton-Dias, noted that the course was designed to assist with the further development of managerial skills of senior nurses at the hospital and community health centres.
She pointed out that the overall objective of the course was to increase the knowledge base of the participants as it pertains to the concepts and theories of management. “To enable participants to exhibit accurate clinical judgement, critical thinking, competence and safety in administering nursing care and to demonstrate commitment and accountability in the delivery of health care,” the Acting Matron intimated.
Mr. Hensley Daniel, featured speaker at the event, focused on moving to standards and not to people. He spoke about increasing their performance and becoming managers who lead, and as he highlighted the importance of standards and performances, he also spoke about working as a team in order to achieve the best overall results. He mentioned the appreciative enquiry method in that they should value and work with the best that is there on the job.
“We are trying to move in a new direction and we are moving to standard and not to people, so that is why we are asking you to make that change,” said Daniel. “If eight of you offer to help with one thing in the hospital, that’s eight things that get fixed up one time.”
Daniel, a community worker himself, in leaving a few quotations with the graduating nurses echoed, “until we step out like Mandela, ‘out of the darkness and into the light’ to see how much we can be of help, we are not going to improve”.
A special presentation was made to Mrs. Maureen Stapleton, former matron of the Alexandra hospital. Her tenure of duty ended on April 30, 2004. She was acknowledged for her outstanding contribution in the field of health care and nursing administration.
She accepted her plaque and commented that her 23 years and 3 months of nursing had been very rewarding.
