QEH under microscope

The Barbados Nurses’ Association (BNA) President Joannah Waterman says the local nursing community is “disturbed” by recent fiery social media discussion on the delivery of nursing services at the state-run Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and she insists that any “poor” treatment of patients as recently alleged, is the exception and not the rule.

And while she condemns any inhumane treatment of patients by the nurses, Waterman told Barbados TODAY that the responsibility for weeding out those who do not follow the rules and regulations of the profession sits at the door of the Barbados Nursing Council.

Her comments came amid a social media uproar over the past few days, initiated by a post by former journalist Roy Morris alleging substandard treatment meted out to late photojournalist Antonio Digga Miller of the Government Information Service, who died at QEH last Friday morning following a battle with diabetes and related illnesses.

In a Facebook post, Morris noted that while there are good people working at the hospital, in all areas, medical and non-medical, management and line staff, there are some who should not be employed even to assist sheep.

“They are cold, callous and uncaring,” he said.

However, the BNA President said the association accepts nothing but professional, aboveboard behaviour.

“I am an educator for over 30 years across the globe and that is not how we train our prospective nurses.

“So the present situation that is being highlighted has us very disturbed as to what is happening. I will accept that this is nothing new. Complaints have been made over and over again, but we now want to see what can be done, and what strategies can be put in place to turn things around,” she said.

The president said the nursing council has the authority to order investigations and take disciplinary actions against offenders who have breeched the rules.

“There is a disciplinary committee and they have the power even to remove persons from the register or enrollment. But this can only be done when it is a case that is warranted, and when management and members of the public send the necessary report. That is one thing that has not been happening that should be happening.

“Where you get a behaviour that is persistent and is causing a severe problem where it goes into a level that it is injurious to patients it has to be reported,” she said.

“And I want to stress that members of the public can write to the Nursing Council of Barbados if they are experiencing unprofessional, uncaring treatment. They can write to the council and state the names of persons once it is a really serious breech,” Waterman added.

Waterman said the association holds the view that those in the profession must be caring, compassionate, empathetic, have good communication skills and are able to maintain an effective nurse-patient relationship.

Infact, she stressed that the association offered continuous professional training for those in the nursing profession.

The association president said that the recent discussion has left the “excellent” nurses in the system upset and unappreciated.

She said that a BNA team intended to visit the Martindale Road, St Michael healthcare facility to give support and encouragement to the nurses there.

“They are very upset in terms of the negative light that is being thrown on them. We have excellent nurses in the system and some of them are not happy right now,” she said. anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb