St. Eustatius Health Foundation Director Dr. Gerard Berkel (right) with nurses at Queen Beatrix Medical Centre in St. Eustatius.
- EUSTATIUS--International Nurses Day was observed Tuesday with the hoisting of the flags and a scaled-down ceremony at Queen Beatrix Medical Centre (QBMC) due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Present at the ceremony were St. Eustatius Health Foundation Director Dr. Gerard Berkel, Dr. Gerwin Schobbe of St. Eustatius Health Foundation, and some nurses and QBMC staff members.
The ceremony was much scaled-down in comparison with previous years, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the strict guidelines under the emergency ordinance with regard to social distancing and the limited number of persons allowed in one location.
Nurse Annalisa Canwood said that while the coronavirus has impacted everyone, doctors and nurses, who are in the front line fighting this pandemic, are also victims and some of them died of COVID-19.
“We understand that fear is playing a big role in how we do our jobs, but today we are trying to fight the fear by reflecting about what our true motivation was for becoming nurses. We became nurses to care and because we do care,” Canwood said.
She encouraged all nurses to continue to be “beacons of hope” to their patients and to support them. Canwood said nurses are sometimes the only people a hospitalised patient sees in a day and she inspired the nurses, saying, “We want to give them joy, encouragement, care and compassion.”
“Today, I want to fight fear with love, empathy and care with the same reason we became nurses. We need to find that motivation back. Find that spiritual connection that nurses have with their patients, because I really believe that nurses have this special connection with their patients,” Canwood said.
Nurses help people through difficult times, whether it is by helping a mother through labour and delivery, or by holding a patient’s hand during his or her dying process, or the day-to-day activities that nurses provide for their patients.
Canwood said nurses are there to help patients through life’s journey from the beginning to the end. “They do it with love. Nurses are ever-present, ever-caring and ever-loving. Happy Nurses Day,” she said.
