WANTED! More trained neonatal nurses in Guyana

PEDIATRICIAN DR. YOULANDA HAYNES wants more attention paid to neonatal nursing
throughout Guyana.
Haynes made the pitch during the just-completed three-day workshop to for neonatal nurses to
help reduce deaths of newborn nationwide.
“If we increase our knowledge and practical skills in the regions…they can be able to help in
saving a lot of these babies’ lives,” Dr Haynes explained.
Neonatal nurses work with babies born with a variety of problems including prematurity, birth defects,
infection, cardiac malformations, and surgical problems. Many of them care for infants from the time of
birth until they are discharged from the hospital.
Some neonatal nurses care for infants with long-term problems because they were born premature or
develop some ailment after birth. A few neonatal nurses may care for infants up to about 2 years of age.
Haynes who is attached to the country’s apex institution, the Georgetown Public Hospital
Corporation (GPHC), reiterated that with more trained neonatal nurses available in the local
healthcare system nationwide more babies born with life-threatening problems can be saved.
She said while 80 to 90 percent of babies born don’t require resuscitation, the rest require help to
breath properly.
“Those are the ones that we are targeting, that they will be ok once the initial steps
are…adequately managed. There are just one percent that require advanced resuscitation that
requires transport,” the GPHC specialist said.
There is a deficit of these specialists in healthcare institutions outside the capital city, and Dr
Haynes said the vision of multiplying them can the strangled by the prohibitive transportation
costs. But she sees a light at the end of the tunnel.

“It’s financially difficult to bring everyone out,” but they have a responsibility of returning and
passing this knowledge on so that everybody can benefit from what they would have learnt”.
Hayes said despite the challenges she can discern improvements in resuscitation in the various
regions.
“Continuous training is important as it would help significantly in reducing the workload of what
we are faced with at GPHC. That is why we continue to stress that the various regions improve
the skills and knowledge of their health care workers so as to reduce the load and numbers that
we are confronted with”.
Haynes wants dramatic dips in neonatal deaths across Guyana.
“My personal expectation is that when they are faced with a baby born that is not breathing or
crying, they must be able to make the baby breathe or cry within the first minute. That is why we
are going through the stages so that they can be competent at whatever level they work.”
“Some might not be able to provide advance care, but if we teach them the basics then your
baby might be able to survive,” Dr Haynes assured local mothers.