41 New Midwives To Join Health System

Forty-one new midwifes have been equipped to provide essential support to women, mothers and babies, following the successful completion of training at the Cornwall School of Nursing (CSN).

At a graduation exercise held on Thursday (April 7) at Calvary Baptist Church in Montego Bay, four batches of basic and post basic midwifery graduates received their diplomas after reciting the Midwife’s Pledge.

The swansong ceremony, which was full of pomp and pageantry, also marked the official closure of the CSN following 47 years of training nurses and midwives. The Midwifery faculty functioned for 43 years.

Delivering the keynote address, Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Hon. Juliet Cuthbert, hailed CSN for consistently churning out a high caliber of healthcare workers over the years.

“The success of this institution is evident in the work of those who (have passed) through your teaching and care to serve the nation’s public health system,” she said.

“The health and well-being of women, mothers and their babies remains of utmost importance to Jamaica’s health infrastructure,” she added.

State Minister Cuthbert applauded the graduands for making the decision to enter “a noble profession”, noting that “midwives form part of the core frontline healthcare providers, who are critical to the delivery and improvement of women’s sexual, reproductive and maternal health.”

She charged the all-female cohort to be mindful of their responsibility to contribute to reducing Jamaica’s maternal and neonatal mortality and morbidity, reducing stillbirth and preterm birth, and improving psychosocial and public health outcomes.

Chief Nursing Officer at the Ministry of Health and Wellness, Patricia Ingram-Martin, who described the occasion as “bittersweet”, told the gathering that the closure of CSN came as a result of a decision to transfer all educational programmes under the Health Ministry to the Ministry of Education and Youth.

“The midwifery training was transferred in 2014, however, the Ministry ran parallel midwifery programmes to prevent a gap in the number of midwives that were available to provide services each year. This training is now being fully transitioned, hence the closure of the school,” she noted.

The CSN was one of the campuses of the Kingston School of Nursing.

Over the 47 years of existence, the institution has graduated 20 batches of general nurses totaling 619; 27 batches of post basic midwives, totaling 745; and 21 batches of direct entry midwives, totaling 285 personnel.