MANDEVILLE, Manchester — More than 200 student nurses and others being trained in health care at the Cobbla Campus of the Knox Community College in northern Manchester celebrated another step towards professional status recently.

Ranging in categories including allied health care, assistant nursing, and the elite four-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing programme, the students were stripped, capped, and awarded in a joyful atmosphere.

Against the backdrop of the global threat posed by disease and sickness – not least the novel coronavirus — and the high migration of nurses and other health care professionals from Jamaica to “greener pastures”, motivational speakers urged the students to strive for excellence, professionalism and the welfare of their patients.

“Your patients are important, the patients you take care of are people of value” regardless of differences including race, creed, and sexual orientation, said Dr Heather Fletcher, assistant registrar, Nursing Council of Jamaica, who was the main speaker.

Fletcher told her listeners that to take care of others, they must first do their utmost to ensure they remained healthy in body and mind.

“Help yourselves first and then proceed to help others… otherwise, both you and the others will be in jeopardy. Take time for exercise, good nutrition, and a little relaxation … it is not unselfish to take care of yourself, it is necessary,” said Fletcher.

She reminded her audience of the need to maintain a regime “for lifelong learning”, to be on top of their profession and the “changing patterns” of diseases and illnesses.

“Never let your learning end,” said Fletcher.

— Garfield Myers