Antigua
This month we wanted to update to you on what has been happening in Antigua & Barbuda. We started working with the Ministry of Health, Wellness & the Environment and Mount St. John Medical Centre a little more than an year ago. Giving Health To Kids (GHTK) was approached by the government because they wished “to improve the neonatal services in Antigua and Barbuda”. It was identified that this could be done through the provision of neonatal webinars; a neonatal training program for nurses and the acquisition of neonatal equipment.
The Mount Saint John’s Medical Centre is the government’s sole tertiary health care facility with 185 beds situated at Michael’s Mount, St. John’s, Antigua; The Centre has a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) with 15 beds.
As with the GHTK program in Guyana, GHTK listened to the experts on the ground in Antigua & Barbuda and asked them to identify how GHTK could support their goals. Equipment for the NICU and educational programs were identified as the most pressing needs to intiate the partnership with GHTK.
In October 2019, Mount St. John’s issued a media release to report that GHTK had donated $24,000 worth of much needed medical equipment and supplies to the Centre’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The donation included patient monitors, pulse oximeters, bilicare transcutaneous bilirubinometer device with accessories and brackets, portable medical nebulizers and replacement medicine cups.
This equipment was gratefully received by the Maternal Child Team and Administration at Mount St. John’s.
Again, working with the senior staff at Mount St. John’s the neonatal educational needs were identified and the training program began in the fall of 2019. There are 12 nurses registered in the program, and coordinated by Cait Yeager, a long time member of the GHTK Board (you met Cait in our September Update), training is proceeding on schedule. Cait has developed a volunteer team of NICU trained nurses who use their vacation time to go to Antigua (and Guyana) to assess the level of skills on the ground and provide the teaching required.
GHTK pays the air fare to Antigua for the volunteers, the nurses use their vacation time away from their base hospital either in Canada or the USA and Mount St. John’s provides the accommodation. It truly is a team effort on everyone’s part and those who benefit the most are the neonates born at Mount St. John. Everyone lives our vision of “Every child deserves a tomorrow”.
Two of our volunteer nurses, Kate McGlumphy and Maria Vonau recently came back from teaching the program in Antigua, and we wanted to share with you some of their thoughts.
“The twelve nurses originally reqistered in the program are doing very well and are all expected to gradate in June/July 2020. However, whenever we are on the ground we find that many other staff members want to listen in on our classes, including student nurses, staff nurses and all the doctors.
We started our first day by observing, learning their processes and answering questions. Among the many things we focussed on was safety checks and the importance of them being done at the start of the shifts; pain management/comfort measures for the neonates during procedures; alarm limits and alarm fatigue; supporting nurses to decrease the noise and to be aware of true alarms and who is responsible to answer. Due to staffing shortages, there are times when non NICU nurses are assigned to the NICU, we talked about the importance of these nurses being overseen by staff nurses. Ventilator care is vital in the NICU and we discussed safety checks and alarm limits. We also supported intubation techniques and spent time helping the nurses do some cares and feeding”.
Kate and Maria came away with many suggestions of how GHTK can further help the educational program and will be following up with Cait and Dr. Singh.
Mount St. John Medical Centre
Nurses Maria Vonau and Karen Jacobs-Bruce Assistinga mother to hold her infant
Nurses Kate McGlumphy and Maria Vonau
Kate with Wanda Ferris teaching endotrachael tube suctioning
Maria and Kate with (left to right) Nurses Ronis Joseph-Browne, Tiffinee Da Silva, Wanda Ferris-Martin, Karen Jacobs-Bruce, Shemieque Ferris-Martin and Sister Zena Knight-Barnes. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us Kate and Maria, and we send our best wishes to the nurses in the program for a successful graduation.
Samantha Mele
In our continuing series of introducing you to members of the GHTK Board of Directors, this month we focus on Samantha Mele. Samantha is a Creative Services Manager for Canada’s top business event specialist and destination management company, JPdL Inc. She is a skilled Event Manager who specializes in organizing client events. Samantha is also one of two Canadians named to the Professional Convention Management Association’s “20 in their Twenties” Class of 2018. This is a program designed to engage the best and brightest young processionals in the business event industry. Her experience in food, beverage, not for profits, incentive travel and business events provides her with the necessary qualifications and networks to challenge the events status quo.
Samanatha was introduced to GHTK in 2015 and after her first meeting with Dr. Narendra Singh and Mahendra Singh, she immediately fell in love with the work of the organization. She was impressed by the passion and dedication of GHTK to make a difference in Guyana. Amongst the many Event Committees she has worked with, Samantha felt that the GHTK family was like nothing she had seen before.
Given her professional experience, Samantha has been an integral part of the Event Planning Committee in organizing the Annual GHTK Gala for the past four years. She has brought her knowledge and expertise to ensure the success of this event, which is the primary fundraiser for Giving Health To Kids. Samantha said she is honoured to be part of the journey as GHTK continues to grow its outreach services in the broader Caribbean community. We are also grateful to have Samantha’s commitment and support as we move forward.
Next Month
We are currently in discussion with the Ministry of Public Health in Guyana regarding the development of a Medical Outreach program, and we look forward to sharing this exciting news with you next month. It is something that will support the care and life expectency of neonates in remote area of Guyana.
Your Questions
We welcome your questions and feedback on everything we do, and we encourage you to send them to
As always, we thank you very much for your ongoing support and interest in all that we do.
Dr. Narendra Singh, President GHTK “Every child deserves a tomorrow”
e-mail:
Giving Health To Kids (GHTK), 2365 Finch Avenue West, Suite, 203, Toronto, Ontario M9M 2W8
Charity Registration # 805 814 316 RR0001
