Nurses hold open day

They are usually our first point of contact with the health care system, and today Belize’s nurses showed the public why they deserve our respect.

Jacqueline Woods, Reporting

The Open Day held under the theme: Nurses Always There For You”,

exhibited the equipment nurses have used and the progress made to provide the best care possible to the public.

Isabel Bennett, Secretary, Belize Nurses Association

“Out here we have quite a number of equipment that we work with at this point in time and that the pioneers in nursing had to work with for those long and tedious hours that nurse had to work in 1955, 1940’s. We have changed from metallic things that we had to clean in those days to more disposable stuff that we use now at this present time in nursing.”

It is the second time that the nurses have held an open day to commemorate their week. Bennett says the Day gives them an opportunity to explain to the public the work they do. Today, besides taking care of the sick, the Belize Nurses Association is lobbying hard to give to its members the benefits they as nurses feel they deserve.

Isabel Bennett

“Well on local level we have been negotiating with the Minister of Housing and we have been a bit successful in obtaining residential lots for nurses. We are still negotiating and we are still lobbying because the number we have requested is very small to the number of demands that we have and that is the main need for nurses at this point in time to have a home and to have a housing lot.”

Presently there are 365 registered nurses in Belize. Nurses week comes to a close on May 13th.