PM challenges nurses to do more

By Lindsay Thompson

Bahamas Information Services

NASSAU – Nurses were urged to contribute to the formation of national policies that would meet health challenges here and throughout the region.

This appeal came from Prime Minister Perry Chris-tie as he officially opened the Caribbean Nurses Organi-sation 25th Silver Biennial Conference underway at the Atlantis Resort.

It is the second time the conference is being held here; the first time was 24 years ago when Mr. Christie welcomed the CNO as Minister of Health.

Delegates from 26 countries, including representatives from Dutch, French and Spanish territories are meeting to discuss nursing and health issues impacting the various countries.

The week-long conference is being held under the theme: 'Caribbean Nurses Collaborating for Excellence in Global Health.'

The Prime Minister, whose mother the late Naomi Christie was a nurse for more than 50 years, underscored the importance of the profession and appealed to them to go beyond administering medicine.

"Our countries need you to help us with policy formation. You have the capacity to do so. Part of your work is counselling, understanding the patient you are treating," He said. "I have an intimate understanding of the sacrifice and commitment that nurses have made in the country."

The Prime Minister pointed out that The Bahamas, being scattered over 100,000 square miles of water poses "a great and profound" challenge to the delivery of health care to residents.

"So when we look historically at the delivery of health services, we truly can be grateful for the services provided by nurses in our country over the generations," He said.

The Prime Minister told delegates that some countries in the region face the same challenges as The Bahamas, because nurses in rural areas and the difficulties they face, particularly generations ago, made it necessary for them to be nurse practitioners.

"When we look now to modern nursing, and we look at the privileges and the way in which we are able to practice nursing in our tertiary institutions and in the public health sector, we know that we have made great strides in our region and great strides in our country," he said.

Twenty-four years ago, the challenges were to improve the conditions under which nurses worked, and to seek adequate remuneration.

In this vein, he advised nurses that as their economy and tourism product stren-gthens, their governments would further subsidize public health in terms of surveillance and protection.

The Prime Minister also spoke to the "extraordinary challenge" of attracting young people to the profession, and nurses seeking jobs elsewhere in the U.S. and Canada.

Minister of Health and National Insurance, Senator the Hon. Dr. Bernard Nottage, acknowledging the work of nurses, said that nurses have taken on challenges doctors have not been prepared to do.

"Without health people, we cannot adequately and properly develop our countries," he said. "The principal health educators are you, because you have the majority of contact with patients on a daily basis and so we depend on you."

© 2006 The Freeport News