NASSAU, The Bahamas – “We will do all we can”, was the charge to nurses from Dr. Aubynette Rolle, Managing Director of the Public Hospitals Authority, during a luncheon in the nurses’ honour.
Dr. Rolle issued the challenge during her address on the occasion of Bahamas Harvest Church Nurses Month Luncheon held Wednesday, September 27, 2023.
“On behalf of the Public Hospitals Authority family, I would like to congratulate all of today’s honourees. The public recognition you receive today celebrates your dedication to your patients, your commitment to teamwork, and your devotion to professionalism. You stand today as examples to emulate in ensuring that all health facilities provide the highest quality nursing care possible,” said Dr. Rolle to the health care professionals assembled at the church on University Drive.
The more than 20 nurses represented Princess Margaret Hospital and Sandilands Rehabilitation Center in New Providence, and the Rand Memorial Hospital in Grand Bahama.
In congratulating the honourees, Dr. Rolle acknowledged that the public recognition they received celebrated their dedication to their patients, commitment to teamwork, and devotion to professionalism.
“You stand today as examples to emulate in ensuring that all health facilities provide the highest quality nursing care possible,” she said.
Dr. Rolle also thanked Pastor Mario Moxey and the Bahamas Harvest Nurses Month Committee for staging this luncheon that showcases the importance of nursing as a profession and its profound impact on patients, families, and communities across our Bahamaland. Also present were PHA Chairman Andrew Edwards and PHA Director of Foundation & Communication Relations Alana Major.
“The nurses we honour today are not unique, rather they exemplify the qualities required to be a good nurse,” said Dr. Rolle.
According to Gallup, a leading international polling company, nurses ranked as the most trusted profession for the 21st year in a row. People have ranked nurses as the most trusted profession every year since 2002.
And, according to Dr. Rolle, this is just one indicator of the profound reserves of trust and confidence the public reposes in nurses.
She then posed the question, “What Should We Do to Maintain that Trust?”
Dr. Rolle also regarded each of the honourees as exemplars of nurses who have remained faithful to that sacred trust. To be so recognized by their peers and the public is a laudable achievement, particularly in today’s shifting healthcare landscape. She also shared that the Public Hospitals Authority and its institutions are in the process of profound transformation and reform.
“Longstanding challenges with recruitment and staffing, aging built environments, infrastructure and equipment, escalating costs, continuing bottlenecks in the supply chains upon which we rely, increased demand for care and services by patients, and persistent shortfalls in revenues are among some of the most pressing concerns the Authority has undertaken strategic measures to address.
“These measures to address the challenges we face have ushered in a profound period of evaluation and change across the PHA. In all of our institutions it is the nurse and her clinical colleagues who stand at the precipice of change,” she said.
Dr. Rolle, who began her career in healthcare as a nurse and midwife, recalled the mantra, “Once a nurse, always a nurse.”
She then posed another question, “What should nurses do to maintain the trust the public has placed in us?”
For the nurse, there is only one answer to this question. “We will do all we can,’ concluded Dr. Rolle.