The last step, and most difficult to organize, was a seminar for all the Jamaican Doctors/Instructors and staff from each region who would be responsible for moving the program forward. Dr. Michelle-Ann Richards Dawson will be heading up the project, so she did the pre-planning. Getting all of the Doctors together for this was a daunting task, so I was happy she took care of that. It was never easy to coordinate 2 regions for sessions in the past, let alone all 4 regions for this seminar.
It was fun for me to have all my friends and colleagues together at the same time. I presented a Power Point of the mechanics and forms for Planning, Execution, Testing and Evaluation, and the group brainstormed ways to make the process even more efficient.
My last slide of the Power Point was in honor of the first sessions in November of 2005. Dr. Everton Hylton called us Pioneers of Neonatal Resuscitation in Jamaica when he saw this photo.
L-R: Gail Dutcher, a Respiratory Therapist from Texas whom I met online, and who had also done volunteer medical education in Jamaica; Dr. Helen Trotman-Edwards, Neonatologist from University Hospital of the West Indies, who helped me understand equipment availability and the realities of providing healthcare in Jamaica; me; the late Dr. Everton Hylton, former Pediatric Consultant for Westmoreland Parish and my friend, whom I miss very much.
Before we began this program, there were no opportunities to learn Neonatal Resuscitation anywhere in Jamaica. Thinking back to the summer of 2005, when I was approached by the Ministry of Health to help develop the program, I had no idea that in 4 short years, the program would come so far. I am proud of what has been accomplished, yet humbled by the generosity of all the people in Jamaica that helped make this happen. And above all – I will be forever grateful to Rotary International for the grant that bought the equipment for each region.
Next: The Tafari Youth Club in Hanover Parish.