The health system in Fiji has been boosted with the induction of 233 nurse interns today who will be posted to different health facilities around the country for 18 months before they are registered as nurses.
While officiating at the induction today, Permanent Secretary for Health Doctor James Fong reminded them that nursing is a calling of a deep desire to devote themselves to serving people according to the higher values of a task or a profession.
Dr. Fong adds that the field that they are entering is not a field for the fainthearted, and is not a field for those who do not man up and become strong every single day.
He says the country needs a full health system of trained professionals exposed to the system, the processes and they understand the interactions that are required with various partners in the field of medicine to make medicine work.
He further says that the field that these nurse interns are entering now is for the pacifist and it requires the effort of everyone to make it work.
Dr. Fong reminded them that they do not come into this field to be a passenger but to carry a load every single day.
He further encouraged the nurse interns that their achievement of yesterday is now the stepping stone for another achievement because they do not stop, they keep learning and they keep trying to achieve.
The Permanent Secretary says the classroom phase has ended and now the real world is ahead and these nurse interns will have 18 months to prove and to put into practice what they have learned both in clinical and the public health centre.
He also says one of the key roles is to help a patient’s family understand what is going on beyond their knowledge and hope that they can make a difference in the lives of the patient’s family and not only in the patient’s life.
