An award-winning forensic nurse overcame discrimination to distinguish herself as a trailblazer in the field.

Gaynell Hayward-Caesar began working at King Edward VII Memorial Hospital’s neonatal unit in 1978, after earning a degree in nursing from the University of the West Indies in Jamaica.

She explained: “Our school, even though we graduated with a bachelor’s degree, was not deemed to be an accredited school, because it was not in the UK, Canada or the US.

“At that time, it was that sort of discrimination in regards to the level of education.

“Most of the nurses were White. They were running the wards — they were superior and we were inferior.”

Dr Hayward-Caesar was this week appointed an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire during the 2025 New Year Honours List for her outstanding service to healthcare and public service in Bermuda.

She recalled the neonatal section’s transition to a level three unit offering specialised care for critically ill newborns. She was also the first Black manager of the hospital’s maternity ward.

She moved to the Department of Health in 1998, co-ordinated the island’s Sexual Assault Response Team since then and is the last of the original nurses still with the team.

She explained: “Originally we had a dedicated space at the hospital, but we had to move because they had to accommodate the Intensive Care Unit.

“We now share a space with a clinic in the Acute Care Wing and we sometimes have to work around that clinic.”

Dr Hayward-Caesar served as the Department of Health’s Chief Nursing Officer from 2011 to 2021.

The biggest challenge of her career, she said, was responding to the outbreak of Covid-19 after the coronavirus ramped into a full-blown global pandemic in 2020.

She recalled: “I was tasked with ensuring that we had relocation and resources for health and border control and I, along with some colleagues, set up the first testing site in the health department parking lot.

“We were responsible for the PPE procurement, receiving vaccines from UK and also a very active command centre.”

Dr Hayward-Caesar took a team of nurses to Haiti after the Caribbean nation was struck by a catastrophic earthquake in January 2010, killing more than 100,000 people.

Other service included volunteering at a hospital in Ethiopia and helped start an orphanage programme in Kenya to support children who lost parents to HIV/Aids.

She earned a Doctorate in Nursing Practice in 2021. Dr Hayward-Caesar sits on the family court panel and has taught a course at Bermuda College since 2023.

She said Andrew Murdoch, the Governor, informed her of the nomination for an OBE last month.

She told The Royal Gazette that initially she refused the accolade.

She explained: “I said ‘my reward is not on earth, it’s in heaven’ — but Mr Murdoch said, ‘the award is for people like yourself, who have selflessly given to the community’. I responded ‘in that case, I will accept the award’.”

Dr Hayward-Caesar hopes to see more Bermudian nurses and believes encouragement from family members and career fairs can attract them to the field.

She said: “My mother always told her children that serving humanity is the greatest service of all, so that’s how we lived.

“My two sisters are also nurses, my brother was a nurse and my other brother was a massage therapist.

“We’re all in the helping field and for us, it’s making a difference and not being the status quo.”