Parents nurse KC in COVID crunch
Published:Friday | October 2, 2020 | 12:15 AMNadine Wilson-Harris/Staff Reporter
Health practitioners are in high demand, but having a busy schedule did not prevent a group of parents from volunteering at Kingston College when the institution announced that it had no nurses to navigate the early phase of COVID-19.
“The school had been without school nurses for a little while. Persons came, then they got jobs elsewhere and they go, and some went overseas,” said principal Dave Myrie.
When the Government shuttered schools in mid-March following the detection of the first coronavirus case locally, there was only one nurse serving the school’s two campuses, but she eventually left.
So when the education ministry announced that senior students were to return to school in June to prepare for external examinations, the school faced a dilemma.
“We said we had no school nurse, so what were we to do because it was too short a time? We put out advertisements and we received nobody,” Myrie said.
But the group of nurses came to the school’s rescue when the parent-teacher association issued a call for help.
The nursing group, which comprises mothers of students at the central Kingston school, organised themselves and, for five weeks, took turns going to the institution to assist with COVID-19 protocols.
Among them was Antoinette Barton-Gooden, an emergency room nurse and lecturer at The University of the West Indies School of Nursing.
“When the boys came back to school, the whole handwashing and sanitisation was new to them,” she said.
“During the day, we would walk around and encourage them to adhere to the mask wearing and do their distancing, and all of that.”
The group of about five nurses also conducted temperature checks and logged the readings for each student. They also worked with the school’s administration to ensure that staff were not at risk.
The parents volunteered while still undertaking their full-time jobs. When it came time to hire full-time nurses, Barton-Gooden was also invited to be on the interviewing panel.
Dialysis technician Francine McCalla said that volunteering at the school was comforting as it allowed her to ensure that the boys were safe.
“My son is important to me, and the other boys at Kingston College are also important to me, so it is only fair for us as parents to chip in where we see a shortage,” said the nurse, who assisted with putting up COVID-19 warning signs at the school campus.
The group cut back on their activities after the exam period, but Barton-Gooden still goes to the school to do follow-ups and now communicates with at least one of the nurses regularly.
“I am always on the PBCJ (Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica) YouTube channel. So like every evening, I am checking into see what is happening new,” she said.
The death of one of the school’s vice-principals, Juliet Wilson, from COVID-19 two weeks ago, has reminded the team that their mission must continue.
Although students will be doing online classes as mandated by the Government, Barton-Gooden and her team will be helping to provide their expertise to the school community so that staff and visitors to the compound are protected.
“There will always be a place for them helping out at Kingston College. We have about 2,000 students and two nurses covering 2,000 students,” said Myrie.