Shailee Neish wants to transform the nursing industry
FOR the past 14 years, Shailee Neish has been dedicating her life to providing the best care she possibly can to the patients she comes in contact with as a nurse. Being a department supervisor at the Bustamante Hospital for Children means that she gets to inspire the nurses under her charge to put a smile on the faces of sick children every day.
The 36-year-old cannot see herself in any other profession and has committed herself to improving the working environment for her colleagues. This vision has been given even more focus with her being crowned the LASCO/Nursing Association of Jamaica (NAJ) Nurse of the Year in June. Three months after that life-changing experience, Neish said she has already started to make some headway in helping to transform the nursing industry. This week, Neish shares a little bit more about herself with All Woman.
1. What has been your major accomplishment since becoming a nurse?
Attaining my master’s degree. In 2010 I got a half scholarship through the NAJ. I always knew I would have done my master’s, but that scholarship gave me the chance to get it done more quickly. I did a master’s in nursing administration at the University of the West Indies. Also in 2008, I was the Bustamante Hospital Nurse of the Year. It (getting my master’s) is something, that in terms of me being so young, it really is in some people’s minds kind of quick. But it’s really because of how nursing is changing now that you will find this. Formerly it was the age and seniority that would speak. Nursing is evolving and a lot of things are taking place.
2. What is the major issue facing nurses today?
Being able to live. A lot of our nurses are challenged in that sphere, especially the ones just coming out of school. Back in the days when I went we had free tuition so to speak, and at the end of that three-year programme, the Government bonded you and you could not leave Jamaica and you could not go private, you had to stick to public service. But nursing is changing and so too has that aspect of things as well. The nurses have to pay for their tuition now and when they come out, what they earn goes back into repaying debt and so living is not easy. Most of them, in order to see their way, it’s really hard and then we are grossly short staffed. I don’t know why, because schools are turning out students. People are also working for years and are not appointed and so stability and tenure are not there.
3. What do you think has been your major contribution to the health field?
The daily giving of service. At Bustamante where I work, sometimes it is hard to detach yourself, but it is what is required for you to give your best. When you are working, you have to be able to not get so attached to the patients so that you can give the required and proper and efficient care. Just being there nursing these children and being a part of the team making the decisions and carrying out the care is great and you see these people getting better and going home. Sometimes I am walking along the corridor and I hear, “Nurse Neish, Nurse Neish” and when I look around, it’s this mother and this big child, and just seeing them and hearing them telling me what I did is really a good feeling.
4. What has been your most memorable experience as a nurse?
There are so many that are so dear to my heart. But I remember as a young nurse just entering Bustamante, there was this child, Kayshanel, and she was a cancer patient. Her mommy was always there, every day. I grew attached to this child, so much so that every day I decided to be the nurse who was assigned to her. But Kayshanel took a turn for the worse and she started bleeding from every orifice that you could think of and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, that we could have done, and we just had to watch her as she became more palliative and tried to make her as comfortable as possible. She died and up to a week straight, I could not sleep. Every day I just saw this child’s image coming up and I think that was the point that I decided that I can’t allow myself to become so wrapped up, that I can’t detach myself. It is not easy. You go through the emotions just as much as the parents, sometimes even more.
