TCI: Interhealth Canada Hospitals working to Boost Careers in Health

#TurksandCaicos, July 29, 2021 – Inter-Health Canada managed Turks and Caicos Islands Hospital are partnering to relaunch two educational programs that seek to raise awareness of healthcare careers to help improve the currently limited local medical expertise in the domestic workforce.

Under their Ready Observership programme, they are seeking to provide upper-level high school students with a behind-the-scenes look and in-depth knowledge about professions in health care. Due to the ongoing pandemic, the program is delivered in a virtual format over three days with practical and theory presentations delivered by health care workers.

Through the Clinic Exploration, it targets students pursuing a health care-related course at a tertiary level institution and ordinarily resident in TCI. The program spans ten days and comprise of virtual and onsite sessions. The onsite sessions include a skills lab on phlebotomy, suturing, vital signs, manual handling, applying splints, Heart Saver, and Basic Life Support training. There is also a requirement to deliver a 20-minute presentation. TCI Hospital is accredited and licensed as a teaching hospital.

The program started on Monday, July 26th, 2021.

Commenting on the relaunch, Dr. Denise Braithwaite-Tennant, Chief Executive Officer at TCI Hospital, states that the programme which commenced in 2012, currently has two graduates who are now physicians.

There is Dr. Raven Saunders, who is working with the Ministry of Health, and Dr. Royelle Robinson, who is working at the TCI Hospital’s Emergency Department, she says.

The hospital CEO adds that there is a worldwide shortage of health care workers, which the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened, and efforts are on to continuously partner with the TCI Government, TCI Community College, and the TCI Ministry of Health as they recognise that there is a need to build local capacity.