Na­tion­al Nurs­ing Ad­min­is­tra­tor in the Min­istry of Health Sher­ma Alexan­der-Camp­bell is chal­leng­ing po­ten­tial en­rollees and ed­u­ca­tors at the St Au­gus­tine Pri­vate Hos­pi­tal (SAPH) De­part­ment of Health Ed­u­ca­tion pro­gramme to show com­pas­sion for pa­tients and their fam­i­lies.

“I want to re­mind us and en­cour­age us to have com­pas­sion run­ning through our train­ing so that in­di­vid­u­als that pass through this de­part­ment can re­al­ly make a dif­fer­ence to those that they touch ... to be re­spect­ful and re­spond with em­pa­thy, hu­man­i­ty, and kind­ness to each oth­er’s emo­tions and needs,” she said.

Alexan­der-Camp­bell, who spoke at the launch of in­tro­duc­to­ry cours­es for sur­gi­cal scrub and anaes­thet­ic tech­ni­cians, told par­tic­i­pants they should make time for their pa­tients and give care that pro­motes re­cov­ery.

“Com­pas­sion low­ers the stress hor­mone in the blood and liv­er and strength­ens the im­mune re­sponse. Be pos­i­tive, be non-judge­men­tal in your at­ti­tude,” she said, adding that com­pas­sion has the pow­er to im­prove pa­tient out­comes.

“Some would say that there is a com­pas­sion cri­sis in health­care, we seem to be more fo­cused more on our own needs than the needs of our pa­tients that we have de­cid­ed to care for,” she said.

The year-long cours­es are a blend of e-learn­ing and hands-on clin­i­cal ro­ta­tions.

Di­rec­tor Dr Sherene Kalloo said SAPH is the first pri­vate hos­pi­tal in the re­gion to of­fer the cours­es.

Can­di­dates must be 17 years or old­er and have a min­i­mum of three CXC pass­es or two years of clin­i­cal ex­pe­ri­ence.

Keynote speak­er at the launch, Dr Os­car Nuel, Head of the Nurs­ing School at the Uni­ver­si­ty of the West In­dies, said there are core com­po­nents that must be in­te­grat­ed in­to the cur­ricu­lum, in­clud­ing clin­i­cal judge­ment, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, com­pas­sion­ate care, di­ver­si­ty, eq­ui­ty and in­clu­sion.