Wow, what a great week in Antigua and Barbuda. I’m CDR Mark Marino, the Director for Nursing onboard the ship and we had the phenomenal opportunity of celebrating Nurses Week and the Navy Nurse Corps’ 101st birthday with our colleagues of the Antigua and Barbuda Nurses Association. On Monday, we joined the Nurses Association in an opening ceremony at their building and then on Tuesday, we had 82 Antiguan Nurses aboard for a tour and a cake cutting in celebration of Nurses Week. Wednesday, 24 of the ship’s nurses attended the Antigua Nurses Association Education Conference where we had lectures on pain management, cultural sensitivity, customer relations, and two of our Air Force nurses presented on innovations in nursing and evidence-based practice. Wednesday night, in honor of the Navy Nurse Corp’s 101st birthday, we hosted a social at a local restaurant with 61 of our Antiguan colleagues joining us for the celebration. The food was great and the music and dancing were even better! On Thursday, we joined the Antiguan nurses for a health fair at two shopping centers and the Department of Education where together the nurses screened over 500 people for diabetes and hypertension. Today, we were asked to provide a three hour seminar on Alzheimer’s disease, dementia and delirium in the elderly to both nurses and families dealing with these problems. And all week we have had nursing students from the local school of nursing aboard with their instructors where they have been doing clinical time with our nurses as their preceptors. It has been a great learning opportunity for everybody!
It was so impressive to be in Antigua during Nurses Week. By partnering with the Antiguan nurses, we discovered that they share the same issues that we do and are faced with the same challenges. Having an opportunity to discuss these challenges and provide each other opportunities on how to address them has proven to be a highlight of the week. Our team of military nurses from the Canada, the Netherlands, El Salvador, and the U.S. as well as our nurses from Project HOPE and Latter-Day Saint Charities will cherish these memories for a very long time! Happy Nurses Week!
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Thanks for the kind words about your nurses, CDR Marino. My sister is one of them; I've been enjoying her emails about her activities.
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