Dr James E. Knight
Who wants to be a nurse? Many persons would like to be nurses, because they would like to take care of people. It would give them a great sense of self-worth and purpose.
Many developed the desire while caring for loved ones who were injured, ill, or in whatever way incapacitated. Perhaps they just helped to care for aged family members.
Perhaps they themselves needed care at some time, and appreciated the value of it. Or even if they only observed others practice nursing, they loved it. Those are the people who should be given the opportunity to fulfill their noble desire.
I got into a lot of arguments about this issue when I worked at Holberton Hospital.
There were several young women who had worked as nursing aides and ward assistants for many years, and were not just experienced, but also intelligent, dedicated and desirous of being nurses.
But the authorities insisted that they had a pass in CXC math. Eventually, a small number of them became registered nurses. How much math do they have to use?
Tell me now, why should one need to pass the math that engineers need to know, to become a nurse? We had great old nurses when few people, especially females, had education beyond primary school.
Solid primary school math, with the times table as the backbone, was more than enough, in the absence of calculators.
So how is it now that all sorts of ‘brain-cheating’ devices are allowed even in primary schools, getting into the school of nursing requires that persons pass CXC math, complete with algebra and trigonometry?
To do what to the patients? Aren’t we trying to produce the required number of basic RNs required in the country?
Would it not make sense to teach a module of math that’s appropriate for nursing, whether in a preparatory programme or in the school of nursing itself? I’m asking.
This colonial system of education which was always about producing an elite and a mass of labourers, has us weaponizing math against the masses of young people.
Why not put specialized math teachers in the primary school to provide that good old solid foundation, including the times table, so that students don’t enter secondary school trembling before the first math class even starts?
Statistics have convinced them that they’ve already failed. Worse yet, that they may be failures in life.
After mid secondary school, why should anyone be obliged to study a level or module of math for which they will have absolutely no use, then nor in the future? Everyone won’t be an engineer.
Young people don’t need nightmares; they need dreams. Their imagination is what must be boosted; their skills are what we need. Not subjects for the sake of having them.
So we find ourselves now, with nurses who met the math requirement. They have several CXC subjects; CAPE at that. But they just wanted a ‘decent job’ with ‘good pay’.
They never really wished to see, hear nor smell anything unpleasant, let alone touch it, even with gloves. Nor did they look forward to any task that might require caring and patience.
People used to try to get their elderly ones into Holberton, and leave them, because they knew that they’d be well cared. Now, young or old had better have someone come in to help them in the hospital.
Food and medicine are put down and left in front of the blind or otherwise incapacitated. Patients who manage themselves at home, but are disoriented in the hospital, often get no help.
A bed sore was a big deal in Holberton; now it is commonplace. Why? Because with all that math, many only dream of big figures.
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