Edith Allwood Anderson and her fruitful near 35 years in nursing

SHE hails from the parish of St Elizabeth, which has produced several outstanding Jamaicans who have made their mark all over the world.

Edith Allwood Anderson even attended a school that colourful retired Senior Superintendent of Police Reneto Adams went to, so maybe that’s where their insistence in defending what they believe in came from.

Now retired as one of Jamaica’s foremost nurses, the outspoken Allwood Anderson, who has now lost sight in both eyes and is battling diabetes, hypertension and kidney disease, is satisfied that the almost 35 years she spent treating sick people were worth it.

Born Edith Allwood on February 25, 1955 at Giddy Hall, North West St Elizabeth, she went into nursing school on May 12, 1975 and graduated on May 12, 1978.

That period followed her early studies at Giddy Hall Primary, then Warren Private Secondary, Adams’ alma mater, and later St Elizabeth Technical High School for two and a half years.

Technical knowledge gained at the Bellevue School of Nursing, during a period of study that had 21 males and 19 females enrolled, led her to joining the staff of the mental institution, where she spent a little over two years.

After taking care of the mentally challenged, Allwood got married and moved to the cool climes of Mandeville, Central Jamaica in December 1979 and stayed until 1985.

“I did midwifery, and in 1985 I proceeded to do my diploma in public health, then was sent to St Elizabeth, where I worked in the Santa Cruz health district which took care of places like Abrahams, New River, Brighton, the Santa Cruz Mountains, back to Pepper, Mitcham and then I went into the Maggotty health district in communities such as Accompong, Elderslie, and Melwood,” she revealed to the Jamaica Observer in an interview.

“I was very innovative and I was doing very well, so persons felt challenged and jealous that this little nurse was doing those things, so I gave them a break. I took some leave and spent nine months at Alpart (Alumina Partners of Jamaica) and while I was there, there was this very good public health nurse, Nurse Brooks who called me and said, ‘no you can’t be at Alpart, the children are out here’ and I went back to the Maggotty area.

“When I was there it was 100 per cent immunization and then another challenge came up, where I wanted to do my advanced nursing administration, at that time it was bordering a degree. I decided that I was not going to do the six months course, because I always thought that I wanted to jump a hurdle, and this has been happening since I was going to school. I went to grade one, then grade three and then into fourth form … end of story.”

Her desire to pursue higher education in her chosen field soon paid off.

“I went to university and graduated with upper honours in nursing administration, and went back to Maggotty to sort out the district. There was a Dr Wright who was having some challenges too, having just come from working in Westmoreland, and she said to me ‘Sometimes it doesn’t make any sense, you just continue to struggle and fight to do this or that, is there any area that you want to work in’ and I told her I wanted to apply to go back into the hospital and she and everyone was shocked, because in those days when you go into the communities you don’t want to do night duty and once you become a public health nurse, you don’t want to go back to the hospital, except if you are going to do sessions and help out.

“I was the one telling the public health nurses that I wanted to go back into the hospital, because it was the time of health reform, and government wanted to integrate secondary care with primary care and I wanted to be the first person to do that.

“At that time government wanted to utilise more of the widwives, since they were out there not doing deliveries, could they go back into the hospitals, and they resisted all those things,” Allwood Anderson said.

She lamented the fact that up to now, the reform has not been completed, and the reclassification exercise is not finished, despite the existence of a heads of agreement.

It is still lacking, that nurses are not becoming chief executives and regional directors, Allwood Anderson said, despite them being trained to function in such roles.

Apart from that, she is also awaiting the reform of the user fees system.

Nursing, she said, became more visible because of strong media interest and the “support” that she got from entities.

The media were very good with me, because they realised that nursing was having a hard time in Jamaica, and so the media helped me … I am one of those who the media never undermined. I went down the ministry and stood up and the media came behind me and gave me support, until nursing became visible.

Although she has been branded as being partisan political at times by people in both the PNP and JLP, Allwood Anderson stayed clear of that field, choosing to offload her energy in a plan to develop nurses instead.

“I have never harboured thoughts of entering politics. Roger (Clarke) who was my MP at one time when I lived at Pepper (North East St Elizabeth) always teased me. When Roger became MP after Sydney Pagon died he said to me that him ago leff the seat gi mi, because him no know why me give so much trouble. He was always saying that I was a loose cannon, because people don’t know what I will do.

“I lived in Pepper but I was born in Giddy Hall and at one time they went and said I am a PNP and the JLP people start cuss me, then after that, PNP people start asking who is this little girl and where she come from.

“My personal thoughts were not going to make me stop saying certain things. I was always going to be fighting. The time I was in NAJ leadership I never voted once, because it wouldn’t make any sense to me, because I was in it for the nurses and I wasn’t going to make any politician stop me from fighting for nurses and nursing, even if I know you and you know that I support you,” she said.

Allwood Anderson retired as Director of Nursing Services in 2012, when her sight started to deteriorate, and other health challenges set in.