143 professionals graduated from New Amsterdam School of Nursing

– employment within the sector secured – Dr Anhtony  

A total of 143 individuals have graduated from the New Amsterdam School of Nursing in Region Six, equipped with the skills needed to deliver high-quality healthcare services.

The cohort comprises 92 health assistants, 31 professional nurses, and 20 midwives.

During the graduation ceremony on Monday, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony announced that the graduates will be employed by the Ministry and assigned to various hospitals to deliver services.

“We want people to start thinking about a career in medicine means that you have to constantly learn because every day there is something new in medicine…” Minister Anthony said.

He emphasised that the government will be launching several specialised nursing programmes for professional nurses. Upon the completion of the training, these nurses will be sent to the new hospital being built at Number 75 Village.

“We have already started some of these programmes in Georgetown. I am hoping that we can get some of the faculty to start similar programmes in New Amsterdam. I want you to think about how you can take the next step going to a specialised programme,” the health minister underlined.

Minister Anthony also encouraged the nursing assistants to pursue the professional nursing programme to advance their careers.

Guyana continues to make significant investments to establish a world-class healthcare system through the construction of state-of-the-art hospitals, rehabilitation of health facilities, and other critical initiatives.

“We are building new institutions. We are adding new equipment. We are doing new programmes so that we can have more people and help them in different ways. But what is important is also that we train more people. If we are going to expand the services, then, we need a lot more trained people…We want to make sure that we have people who would be there to work with our patients,” Dr Anthony affirmed.

In recent years, the government has established at least four new health centres to strengthen healthcare delivery in the region.

Minister Anthony highlighted that the hospitals in Port Mourant, Mibicuri, Skeldon, and New Amsterdam have undergone upgrades to enhance patient care.

Additionally, he revealed that the new hospital Number 75 Village is expected to be operational by the second quarter next year. This hospital will replace Skeldon Hospital, providing an enhanced level of healthcare services to nearly 40,000 persons who live in that section of the region.

“There are lots of new things that are going to make the system more efficient and better. That is why this batch will also have to think about how to use the technology to better serve our patients. We will teach them. It is a very exciting time to be in the health,” he emphasised.

He further commended the remarkable efforts of the New Amsterdam School of Nursing for pushing the barriers of ensuring that more persons are being trained to staff the health institutions.