Fellow Dominicans and nursing fraternity, I bring you warm greetings as we celebrate International Nurses Day.
International Nurses Day is observed annually throughout the world on May 12, which is the birthday of Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing.
This year, we celebrate her 200th birthday.
The theme for this year’s observance is “Nurses: a Voice to lead; Nursing the World to Health”. Such an appropriate theme this year.
It is quite obvious that nurses are at the core of healing the world.
Nurses have been performing extraordinarily by stepping directly into the path of this COVID-19 pandemic to aid in the gloom and help halt the spread of the virus around the world, including our homeland Dominica.
Nurses have led, and are prepared to continue to lead, the delivery of health care services worldwide, to which Dominica is not exempted.
My genuine congratulations echo out to all the nurses for their vital role and unwavering support to the health care sector here in Dominica.
Dominica has been seasoned through crises over the past few years, Tropical Storm Erica in 2015 and Hurricane Maria in 2017, where nurses were unsung heroes in responding to the health needs of the population.
We witnessed their tireless effort, sleepless nights, and neglect of their families and much more to work 24hrs a day in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria.
And now in 2020, the country, yet again, has been relying on the nurses to combat this deadly Coronavirus pandemic.
We have provided Dominicans a degree of reassurance that we will overcome this pandemic. And nurses here have been doing a phenomenal job at it thus far! Especially nurses who have volunteered to serve actively in the management of patients.
Not forgetting our Cuban Nurse Collaborators.
I pause here to express heartfelt condolences, on behalf of the Nursing Service in the Ministry of Health, to the Cuban government, the other Cuban collaborators and families, on the passing of the Cuban Nurse a few days ago. This is evidence of the sacrifice nurses and their families continue to make.
I also pause a moment to reflect and honour the memory of nurses and health workers who have tragically died around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our hearts are with you all at this time.
It is said that there are 20 million nurses across the world and each of them has a story on this 200th anniversary of Nightingale’s birth.
Hence, the World Health Assembly, through the World Health Organization, designated 2020 as the “International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife”.
The International Council of Nursing President, Ms. Annette Kennedy, believed that 2020 was an opportune year for a unique insight into the largest healthcare profession on the globe; essentially, to show the world who nurses are and what they do.
Fellow Dominicans, the year was meant for excitement, a time for a global spotlight on nursing. We wanted all health professionals, politicians, policy officials, health systems, and the public to celebrate, be inspired by and informed about nursing.
However, it is rather unfortunate that many of the planned events to celebrate nursing and to promote nursing as a great career have had to be shortened or more so postponed due to the Corona Virus pandemic.
None the less, we request and remind the government, the policy makers, of the continuous investments, incentives, the superior recognition and support that are commonly needed within the nursing profession.
We are saying, “It is that phase to make the most of one of the best assets in the health care services; the nurses, by equipping them to provide high quality patient centred care, and to play a fundamental role in leading change in the health sector so that we all benefit.”
Thanks is extended to the Honourable Prime Minister, the Minister of Health, the Parliamentary Secretary, the Permanent Secretary, other Health Officials, Nursing Education Institutions, namely All Saints University and Dominica State College, the General Nursing Council, Nursing Associations, and Health Care Providers who lend remarkable support to the nursing service.
To you the public, I do hope we have developed, through time, some level of trust.
Thanks for permitting the nurses those instances to serve you.
To conclude, as Head of the Nursing Service here in Dominica, as we move forward in this momentous year and beyond, nurses, let us continue to show our solidarity in crises; let us remember we are important, not just because of our numbers, but, because of the vast range of health services we provide; let us continue to deliver safe, effective, respectful and quality care; and let us continue together lead in a compassionate manner.
Once again, happy International Nurses Day!
Thank you!
