Educational/professional background
I just completed my BSc in Nursing from the University of the West Indies School of Nursing (Mona Campus) and I am a newly licensed Registered Nurse in my country.
My training as a student nurse afforded me the privilege of working in various capacities both in Jamaica and in Sweden on a student exchange programme (Kristianstad University). These are inclusive of, but not limited to, mental health nursing, medical nursing, and surgical nursing, among others. Whilst in Sweden I did aspects of geriatric, maternal-child and community-based nursing.
I enjoy volunteering and so my voluntary experiences have found me assisting in public health-focused initiatives in various parts of Jamaica.
Research interests or career goals
My career goal is to be involved with non-governmental organisations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). Utilising my nursing training as well as knowledge garnered from my MSc Public Health programme, I will be in a more informed position to identify current public health issues, develop programmes and implement policies that will be able to tackle these issues on a macroscopic level. My interests include alleviating health inequalities, malnutrition, non-communicable diseases, effective infectious disease control, and catering to health needs in humanitarian crises.
Why I chose LSHTM/my programme
I chose LSHTM because based on my research, it has one of the highest qualities of education in the field of public health. It is also one of the most prestigious schools in the field of public health in the world. I strongly believe that in order to be one of the best, you have to learn from the best. LSHTM is also an internationally renowned institution which provides invaluable connections to WHO, PAHO etc. Additionally, LSHTM has a diverse student population. You are able to network with people from all over the world. Hence, an opportunity to network, share your experiences and also learn from other people's experiences.
I chose the MSc Public Health programme because I came across so many public health issues that required attention during my training as a student. Seeing these issues unresolved created an atmosphere of frustration for me. I was introduced to a course called “Community Health”. Through this course I saw that change in the public health system in my country (and the world by extension) would have to start with me. The case study I was required to do in the course took on a whole new meaning. Being able to impact one person’s life with nursing and collaborative interventions increased my zeal for wanting to make a change in the lives of other people. This change could only come about by attaining additional skill sets to add to my knowledge base. I needed skills to identify issues in the public health arena, skills to create and make changes to policies, skills to increase public education and awareness to issues affecting the public’s health as well as advocating for the voiceless.