Grand Cayman, Wednesday, 8 May 2024–   Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) in the Ministry of Health & Wellness for the Cayman Islands, Mrs. Felicia McLean, has marked her first Nurses Week in office by reaching out to current nursing professionals in the Cayman Islands and encouraging them to collaborate with her and the Ministry as they “help to shape policies that uphold the highest standards in the nursing profession.”

May 6-12, 2024 marks Nurses Week, with Sunday, May 12^th, marking Nurses Day.  International Nurses Day is celebrated every year on this date, the anniversary of Florence Nightingale’s birth.  Nurse Nightingale, perhaps one of the most well-known nurses in the world, is credited with revolutionising not only the field of nursing through education and training, but healthcare itself.  She changed the ways hospitals were sanitised, how food was prepared and handled, and how the wounded were treated so as to limit the spread of infections.

“Given our recent experiences with COVID, and certainly long before that, our community has known that nurses make a significant difference in healthcare outcomes for patients,” CNO McLean explains.  “It is great that this fact, Nurses Make the Difference, has been embraced as the theme for 2024’s Nurses Week. I want our practicing nurses to embrace this as well, in their day-to-day work, but also in the contributions they make in our community when it comes to policy development, standards of practice, and even inspiring the next generation of nursing professionals.  I want our nurses to engage, and to use their voices, and I will ensure that they are heard,” she adds.

One of the ways which CNO McLean has asked for all nurses, practicing or not, to engage with the Ministry of Health & Wellness is via the current National Health Strategy consultation. “The insight of nurses is invaluable, and I cannot see an effective strategy that does not include said insight, given our roles in advocating for patients,” she noted.

The National Health Strategy public consultation will run until May 31^st, and is open to all residents of the Cayman Islands.  For more information or to fill out the short survey, log on to https://publicconsultation.gov.ky/ministry-of-health-wellness/national-health-strategy/.  Comments are also being accepted on [email protected] and via what’s app on 936-4969.