There has been an evident gap between between doctors and nurses in the delivery of Emergency Care at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC). It was this that motivated the introduction and soon implementation of an inaugural Emergency Nursing Specialty Programme.
The programme, has actually been in the works for the past three years and is being headed by the GPHC’s Head of Emergency, Dr. Zulfikar Bux, who was able to gain the support from the Vanderbilt Medical Centre in the United States.
Dr. Bux himself, among others, was a beneficiary of Specialist Emergency training from the Vanderbilt Medical Centre. With doctors so trained, it became glaring that there was a need for nurses to also be similarly trained in order for emergency care to be improved.
From Dr. Bux’s perspective it was no fault of the nurses that they were up to standard and it was up to him to do something about it and to ensure that they were brought up to a level where they could deliver efficient care.
Additionally, in detailing the journey to where the programme is today, he expressed satisfaction about the accomplishment during which he disclosed that Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr. Emanuel Cummings, helped with the formulation of a strong curriculum that was accepted and eventually approved by the University of Guyana.
The launch of the programme yesterday was attended by Minister of Public Health, Dr. George Norton, highly in praised the fact that the plans for an emergency nursing specialty had come to fruition.
Also present at yesterday’s launching Chairman of the hospital’s Board of Director, Dr. Carl Max Hanoman and other senior officials and nurses who have been exposed to the training programme.
