THE NURSES BILL 2008 has been hailed as a milestone in professional nursing in Barbados, and a step in the right direction.

Wendy Sealy, National Training Co-ordinator Caribbean HIV/AIDS (CHART) Barbados and chairman of the Research Publication Committee of the Barbados Nurses' Association, said the bill, which would repeal the Nurses and Midwives Act of 1973, augured well for nursing.

She was delivering the feature address at the Barbados Nurses Association dinner and awards ceremony at Accra Beach Hotel on Saturday.

Her address was based on the theme for this year's Nurses Week, Delivering Quality, Servicing Communities: Nurses Leading Primary Health Care. Sealy said nursing was "riding the tumultuous waves of survival for recognition and worth" at a time when the global health arena was confronted with poverty, increased globalisation, climate change and political unrest.

Such issues, she noted, continued to affect health systems in countries like Barbados and small-island developing states. The resulting reform "challenges the very shape of the environments in which nurses are delivering primary health care", the nursing expert said.

"We as nurses contribute to the planning, organisation, monitoring and evaluation of primary health care services within the communities where we live and work," Sealy said.

Referring to her topic Valuing Nurses: A Most Valuable Resource, Sealy stressed that nursing practice was "the very essence" of primary health care and asked: "Who cares for the carers?"

She advanced a number of suggestions on how to show care for members of the profession, such as day and night care facilities for nurses' children and flexible work shifts.

A number of nurses were honoured during the dinner.

Carolyn Arthur was Nurse Of The Year; Jean Holder received the Dr Ena Walters Award; Karl Green, the Colton Bennett Award; Adina Dawe the Eunice Chandler Award; and Alvin Hart, the Elaine Gibson Award; Heather Deane, the Ilene Murray-Aynsley Award and Marcia Hinds the Child Health/Paediatrics Award. (GC)