Just when I thought I could put away my nurse’s cap, along comes another challenge to discredit the intelligence, dedication and the superior training of our nurses.

There was a headline in Saturday’s Royal Gazette titled “Special nurses may get bigger role” followed by an interview with the president of the Bermuda Medical Doctors Association. They strongly oppose this move as they feel it would escalate medical costs, heighten patient risks and degrade the quality of healthcare, and, lest I forget, they added that Bermuda has sufficient physicians!

On the other hand, the Government is looking at ways to increase the availability and efficiency of medical care by considering the registering of advanced-practice registered nurses. These specialist nurses are already an invaluable part of the healthcare system in England, Canada and the United States.

If I say that I found the views from the president of the Bermuda Medical Doctors Association insulting, I would be putting it mildly. Not only have I worked as a nurse and studied the progress of nurses in Bermuda for 64 years, I have survived the fight for local nurses to work in King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, to amalgamate the two racially divided nurses’ associations and for the unionising of nurses. It seems we are continually denied our worth and underestimated.

When one becomes a nurse, one knows the value and importance of fighting for what is right and important for the patient but also what is important to sustain oneself. This latest challenge is nothing new to nurses of my generation, but may be new to this generation.

I remain as focused on the importance of efficient patient care as I did when I arrived all those years ago to serve the people of my country. I did not come looking for better pay and sunshine. I came here because it is my home and I was determined to give it my best.

I have moved through this healthcare system from the birth of my own children, rearing children and grandchildren. I have worked as a district nurse and in many areas of nursing. I have lived to observe the care of my parents and ageing relatives. I worked for many years as the administrator of both the Matilda Smith Williams Seniors Facility and later the Packwood Home. I see the problems and I see the flaws — our population is ageing and the demands on our system are ever increasing.

When I was called out as a midwife to perform a home delivery, the patient’s doctor did not questioned my ability. I was highly trained in that field. They respected my qualifications, and like every nurse practising in Bermuda, I was registered by the Bermuda Nursing Council. So what has changed in all those years? It seems it’s the respect for our qualifications. I continued my nursing training at the Marie Stopes Clinic in London and at The University of the West Indies. Nurses today are even more highly trained and qualified than I.

That interview by the president of the Bermuda Medical Association was insulting but it also reflects the ever-present attitude towards nurses, who have always been considered by some in the medical field as beneath them instead of partnering with them.

In that same interview, it was stated that the Bermuda Medical Doctors Association wishes to maintain “a physician-led model of patient care”. Well, my friends, get over it. Nurses will not take your attitude lying down. We fight for our patients’ rights and now we will be fighting for our own.

I was further incensed by the statement that there is a difference in training hours between APNs and physicians. Well, just in case you have not read my articles on nurses, let me draw to your attention the nursing career of the President of the Senate, the Honourable Joan Dillas-Wright. She is a state-registered nurse, she is a state-certified midwife as well as a registered psychiatric nurse. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing-related areas as well as postgraduate studies at the Bermuda College and Harvard.

So, how do her training hours equate with some of these doctors you are speaking about? How do her extensive career and years of experience heighten patient risks? The president of the Bermuda Nurses Association, Karen Simmons, holds a PhD in nursing. How does she heighten patient risks and degrade healthcare?

I am disappointed but not surprised by the views of the BMA regarding medical progress in Bermuda’s nursing landscape. There is the Government looking at ways to improve healthcare but also to make it more affordable for seniors and the average Bermudians and there they are — not working with them, not looking at alternative methods, just shutting them out.

As I said before, get over it — the challenge is on!

• Cecille Snaith-Simmons SRN, SCM worked as a nurse in Bermuda for 50 years before retiring. She has also recorded the history of Bermudian nurses and Bermuda’s nursing as it is today