Olga Worrell Memorial Scholarship Trust makes inaugural $100K donation

The Olga Worrell Memorial Scholarship Trust has made its inaugural donation of $100 000 to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital’s (QEH) Nursing Services Department, providing funding that will support the education of future critical care nurses and strengthen specialist patient care.

During the ceremony on Wednesday in the QEH boardroom, hospital officials described the contribution as a landmark investment in the future of nursing and healthcare in Barbados.

Director of Nursing Services Henderson Pinder said: “We are gathered here to celebrate a historical partnership that has the potential to fundamentally change the trajectory of nursing and critical care at the hospital.”

Pinder noted that the scholarship represented more than financial assistance, describing it as “an investment in the future of healthcare, the advancement of professional excellence, and quality of care here at the hospital”.

He stressed that the need for highly trained critical care nurses continues to grow as many patients admitted to both intensive care units and general wards require advanced nursing expertise.

“By investing in the profession… the trust is directly investing in safety, health, and resilience here at the hospital,” he remarked, adding that every patient who benefits from expert care and every healthcare professional who advances their education would stand as “a testimony to the value of the award of these scholarships.”

Accepting the donation on behalf of the hospital, QEH chief executive Neil Clark said the contribution continued the values of a Barbadian nurse whose life’s work centred on compassion and service.

Trustee Cheryl Lady Forde presents the donation to QEH Chief Executive Officer Neil Clark

“This is more than a financial donation… It represents a direct investment in the future of nursing and patient care here at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital,” he said.

Olga Worrell began her nursing career at the former General Hospital on Jemmott’s Lane before continuing her profession in the United Kingdom and later Canada, where she served for 35 years at Toronto’s Hospital for Sick Children.

Worrell had expressed the wish that proceeds from her Barbados estate be used to educate nurses, adding that the trust now gives “practical effect to that wish”, Clark said.

The initial endowment will fund critical care nursing education and is expected to support two additional cohorts of registered nurses undertaking postgraduate studies with the University of Birmingham.

“Critically ill patients require highly trained nurses who can recognise deterioration, undertake advanced clinical assessment, respond quickly to changing conditions, and make sound decisions in complex and uncertain circumstances,” he said.

The benefits would extend well beyond the individual recipients:

“Our objective cannot simply be to educate individuals; we must use this opportunity to build sustainable critical care capacity within the hospital. Each trained nurse will bring enhanced skills back into the clinical environment, support their colleagues, strengthen multidisciplinary teams, and contribute to safer and more effective care for our patients.”

Expressions of interest for the next cohort of scholarship recipients will be issued after the funds are formally transferred.

Presenting the cheque, Cheryl Lady Forde, widow of the late Sir Henry Forde, reflected on Worrell, whom she affectionately referred to as “Aunt Ollie”, recounting her decades of service to patients and unwavering commitment to sharing knowledge.

“Olga loved her profession, and she loved to share knowledge,” she recalled. “It is not surprising that she made provision for a trust to be set up with the proceeds from her estate in Barbados to be used for scholarships for nurses.”

She said the trustees were honoured to fulfil Worrell’s final wishes through the creation of the Olga Worrell Memorial Scholarship Trust.

“Therefore, on behalf of my fellow trustees of the Olga Worrell Memorial Scholarship Trust, it is my greatest pleasure to present the first donation of the trust in the amount of $100 000… for training of nurses in critical care.”

Calling it “the first donation of the trust”, Lady Forde said the trustees were “very privileged” to support the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and looked forward to “assisting in the improvement of nursing care in Barbados”.

Trustee Dr Corey Forde, the hospital’s director of clinical and diagnostic services, said the timing of the donation was especially significant as the hospital continues to treat increasing numbers of critically ill patients:

“You’re seeing more and more people obviously coming to our emergency in that critically, critically ill phase. And I think it’s an investment in nursing that we will see the opportunity later how it pans out.”

Believing the hospital’s nurses would make the most of the opportunity, he added: “Given the calibre of nurses that we have in this hospital on the ground… it was the right thing to do.”

Dr Forde also indicated that the trustees hope to broaden their support in the years ahead.

“This is but one area and we hope in the future to donate to other areas and invest, continue to invest within the nursing fraternity,” he said. “I hope that those who go off do extremely well and I know that they’ll do extremely well.”

(LE)