Caribbean Nurses Organization Celebrates 25th Anniversary
More than 400 nurses convened from around the world at the Atlantis Paradise Island Resort in Nassau, Bahamas during the 25th Biennial Conference of the Caribbean Nurses Organization, October 20 – 26, 2006. The Conference theme, “Caribbean Nurses Collaborating for Excellence in Global Health” included presentations from MFP recent graduate, Jacqueline Payne, PhD, RN, who presented data collected from her dissertation research on “Attitudes Toward and Beliefs about Mental Health and Mental Health Seeking Behaviors among Jamaican Immigrants Living in the United States.” MFP advisory Committee Chair, Willa M. Doswell, PhD, RN, FAAN, presented a podium presentation on “Ethnic Differences in Adherence to Anti-hypertensive Medication: A Prospective Study in Subjective Norms, Illness Perception by African Americans.” Both presentations were very well received and generated a lot of discussion and insight during the question and answer session. MFP Program Manager, Janet Jackson, exhibited the MFP materials for recruitment and general information and disseminated approximately 200 copies of the MFP Assessment Report: 1974 – 2000, Executive Summary and other promotional materials. Other presentation topics included Cultural Competence in Nursing; the Challenges of Coping and Managing Losses: Yours and Your Patients; Being Female and HIV Positive: One Woman’s Story; Infection Control in the Workplace; Sharing Best Practices; Bahamian Midwives Knowledge & Perception of Post-partum Depression; Michigan’s Journey to Transformed Public Mental Health System of Healthcare; and a panel discussion on the Implications for Nursing and Health Care Industry.
Social highlights included a Cultural Night, a reception at the Government House featuring the Governor General and Tours of Healthcare Facilities. Convention attendees were also the special guest of Bahamas Faith Ministries International featuring Dr. Myles Munroe, Pastor, and founder of the International Leadership Training Institute. As the sanctuary lights were dimmed, 400 nurses marched into the vast auditorium with lighted candles singing the Anthem of the Caribbean Nurses Organization. Dr. Myles Munroe, known for transforming followers into leaders, spoke on the “Power of Nursing.” Highlights from his lecture are listed below:
- Nursing is mankind’s greatest ministry in the kingdom;
- Nursing attracts the king’s blessings;
- Nursing generates the kingdom inheritance;
- Nursing is the manifestation of kingdom culture;
- Nursing is the King’s nature in action;
- Nursing must be from a passion and not for pay;
- Nursing must be motivated by love and not the lime light;
- Nursing must be from the revelation of the value of the image of God;
- Nursing must be a calling and not just a career;
- Nursing must be a manifestation of a gift and not for a gift.
Dr. Munroe encouraged each nurse to make the following recommendations to their own government:
- Improve working conditions;
- Provide restoration and re-creation centers in hospitals;
- Provide trauma and counseling programs for nurses;
- Consider changing the name or description of the profession to attract more male nurses (He noted that of the 400 nurses in attendance, only ten were male nurses);
- Provide more personal development programs for nurses such as libraries, local development programs, sponsor more advanced studies, etc;
- Create new health tax for better compensation for health care providers.