Caring from the heart
Richards wants Jamaicans to show more appreciation to nurses today
Published:Thursday | May 12, 2022 | 12:09 AMCarl Gilchrist/Gleaner Writer
Touched by the fact that her dear mother spent extended periods in hospital before she died in 1991, Senior Public Health Nurse Dawn-Marie Richards says her drive to serve and care for the sick comes from the heart.
Taking, too, inspiration from her grandmother – also a nurse – who she grew up with, Richards graduated from nursing school in 1997 and got her first job at the Annotto Bay Hospital in St Mary, a parish in which she has spent all her working life.
“The experience has been a mixed one but mostly rewarding,” she said, 25 years after starting out as a registered nurse.
Speaking with The Gleaner on Wednesday ahead of today’s celebration of International Nurses’ Day, Richards recalled that, from as far back as the late 1990s when she started out, nursing has been hit staff shortages caused by migration.
“Of the few of us that were there, we had persons migrating ... and that in itself posed a challenge for us as young nurses, because we would have started supervising our facilities as soon as we came out of nursing school because the managers would have been the ones who would have been leaving for greener pastures,” she said. “As a Level 1 nurse, I would have been assigned responsibilities for supervising the entire hospital compound, even though I had not been exposed to any additional training at the time.”
With migration still a challenge today as nurses are continuously being recruited to work overseas, wooed by better salaries, benefits and working conditions, Richards is hoping “that the powers that be would see it fit to invest in nursing to the point where migration is not that much of a concern for us”.
Her switch from hospital nursing to primary care – or community nursing – was not a surprise as she had been eyeing the field long before making the transition in 2007.
“When you’re trained as a registered general nurse, you’re exposed to all areas of nursing. So, during my training when I was exposed to community nursing, I found that it was something that I liked,” she told The Gleaner.
She was to spend two more years studying public health at the University of Technology, Jamaica, before switching to primary care in November 2007.
“Community nursing is a more family-oriented approach. There are times when you have to go to them (patients). That, for me, was something that I enjoyed more. You get to know them and you’re able to care for them individually, not using a set, prescribed model,” the senior public health nurse added.
Beyond nursing
In the community, too, her care extends beyond just nursing, as she often helps in other areas.
“You might visit them and this one doesn’t have any TRN (taxpayer registration number) and you might have to assist them. This one might need assistance in looking after their elderly grandmother, you know. So the care is different.”
It is the appreciation that is shown for this kind of service that makes the job worthwhile, Richards explained.
And, like her colleagues throughout the profession, Richards has one main wish for International Nurses’ Day: to feel appreciated.
“Sometimes it’s not just the monetary things or the tangible things, just by being nice and just saying thanks is a good way to show appreciation to a nurse,” she said.
“I am looking forward to external stakeholders showing appreciation for nurses on International Nurses’ Day,” Richards added. “For the most part, it is usually our facilities and our association – the Nurses Association of Jamaica – that recognise us. [Those] who we support on the outside don’t really show the appreciation that we would like to be shown. ... What I want persons to remember is to just be kind to a nurse. Big up a nurse. Acknowledge a nurse.”