Nurses receive advance training
We often report on problems in the nation’s health care system, so it’s only fair that when we see good things in the making we check them out. Today Ann-Marie Williams looked at one training programme that should make hospital patients approach surgery with a lot more confidence.
Ann-Marie Williams, Reporting
Seven Belizean registered nurses are in training to join the ranks of a chosen few. There are only four trained nurse anaesthetists countrywide. However, Nurse Anaesthetist Marta Cho, co-ordinator of the postgraduate programme underway at the U.B. Faculty of Nursing, says all this is about to change as these kinds of nurses are critical to the welfare of patients.
Marta Cho, Programme Co-ordinator
“To evaluate patients that will be undergoing surgery, either elective surgery or emergency surgery. We do the pre-evaluation of these patients, for us to be able to plan our anaesthesia that we are going to give the patient. After that, we go ahead and put the patient under anaesthesia, monitor them throughout the surgery and then make sure that they are fine at the end of the surgery, take them back to the recovery area and monitor them until they are fully conscious.”
This two-year programme which will include both theory and clinical practice, is designed for mid-career nurses.
Marta Cho
“You need to be registered nurse with probably post-graduate course. We recommend midwifery, but also if you have critical nurse programmes, then we accept that also. It is for them to be able to know what they’re doing because it’s a very intense course. You have a lot of work to look, read and to do, so that is the reason why they have to be registered nurses.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So these people are in the profession at least five years plus.”
Marta Cho
“Yes, five years plus and we have drawn from the districts since we are regionalizing our services to be able to send them back to their designated areas.”
And several nurses have come together from designated areas under the Health Volunteers Overseas banner, a teaching organisation headquartered in Washington D.C. to facilitate the course.
Lara Krug is the co-director of the organisation.
Lara Krug, Co-director, Health Volunteer Overseas
“The classes that they have are above collegiate or collegiate levels, graduate levels, masters levels classes, in advance anatomy and physiology, advanced mathematics, monitoring in the operating room using the various types of monitors, anaesthetic agents, principles of anaesthesia and conferencing and researching. So they have a pretty intensive case load.”
And for some of the nurses turned students, it’s no easy load to carry.
Darrel Spencer, Registered Nurse, Orange Walk
“I had to move from Orange Walk to Belize City because the amount of hours needed to study is very much nights, it’s a lot of hours.”
Marcia Humes, Registered Nurse, Belmopan
“Because every since I came into nursing, when I was a first year, I decided what I wanted to do, that I wanted to be a nurse anaesthesist, so every thing after that was to build up to this point.”
Ann-Marie Williams
“So you really feel that you have what it takes to be an excellent nurse anaesthesist?”
Marcia Humes
“Yes, because I’m not doing it yet and I already love it.”
Ava Davis, Registered Nurse, Belize
“Because it is an interesting programme and it allows for higher learning. There is a lot of skill involved in anaesthesia and for any nurse, it will set them apart.”
Ann-Marie Williams for News 5.
The first year of the training should find over fifty nurses from Health Volunteers Overseas involved in the programme.
