Call for enhanced elderly care; opportunities for nursing

by Shamar Blunt

Barbadians living with Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) have been become a major talking point of late, thanks in part to COVID-19 and its adverse effects on persons suffering from various heart issues.

Though big steps have been taken over the last several months to target young persons who currently live with, or are at risk of developing NCDs, more attention needs to be paid to the elderly, who often suffer from these ailments in silence.

So says nurse Valerie Alleyne, the programme coordinator for the Cardiac Disease Prevention and Rehabilitation Programme at the Heart and Stroke Foundation, who sat down recently for an interview with Barbados TODAY.

With over 20 years’ experience in the health sector, Alleyne admitted she was pleased to see the great attention being placed on the present high levels of NCDs affecting locals, but said that senior Barbadians often found themselves in the position of not having access to the resources needed to handle their illnesses effectively.

“I know a lot of people pay attention to children, [but] there are a lot of elderly persons out there that have comorbidities, hypertension, diabetes, and some of them don’t have the equipment or resources to even test themselves at home because of lack of finances. They don’t have human resources around them to help them or assist them, and I find that sometimes they get lost in the society.

“As we reach out to children and have all of these campaigns to ensure that we keep our children healthy, I believe too that we should have campaigns to keep our elderly persons healthy,” Alleyne stressed.

One important facet in the fight against NCDs according to Alleyne, is to increase the number of specialised cardiac nurses on the island. She noted that currently many in the health sector believe that learning opportunities for nurses have been left stagnant for far too long.

In her experience, nurses trained in specialised fields of medicine, cardiac care, and others, would be a big sset to Barbados.

“I don’t believe we have a lot of specialities here; I don’t believe that we give the nurses a lot of opportunities to develop in different areas and I believe that we as nurses have become stagnant in one area for a long time.

“A lot of them have lost their morale as it relates to the job. It becomes so monotonous you know, they just go and do the same thing over and over again… there is no growth within the institution.

“I believe this is the time and the season for nurses to evolve, and for nurses to have many choices where they can specialise in, because Barbados needs it.

“We are a growing population becoming more developed, we don’t have to depend on the outside and look for resources outside, when we can train who we have here to do the work we have here,” she added.

In her role as Programme Coordinator, Alleyne is tasked with organising efforts with the medical personnel at the Heart and Stroke Foundation, to ensure all aspects of their programmes involving cardiac disease and rehabilitation, such as care calls, remote monitoring, health check-ups, nutrition guidance and others, run smoothly for all of their clients.

Though she admitted it has always been a passion for her to take care of sick persons and nurse them back to health, she stressed that the job was never an easy one, as it requires large amounts of patience, imbued with empathy.

In her advice for persons seeking to embark on their nursing journey, Alleyne said it was important for future nurses to join the sector because of their interest in helping others, and not solely to seek financial profit.

“Ensure that you love the job, and that you don’t come into the job just for the money. Really and truly if you came for only money, I can tell you that you would want to quit. Make sure you love the job, make sure you love people, [and] make sure that when you come into the job, you are willing to give your best and your all.”