THE UNSAVOURY SIGHT of a gashing wound is enough to make the average person cringe. But cuts, no matter how foul or unpleasant, don’t bother Veronica Webster.
In fact, the nursing officer at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) said tending to severely bruised patients has become a normal part of her life. What began as an unusual, childhood fascination with cuts has led to a rewarding career for Webster, who said helping others heal gives her the greatest satisfaction.
The SUNDAY SUN met Webster, who is the first certified and qualified wound specialist in Barbados and the Caribbean, at the QEH nursing lounge and she was excited to speak about her love for the job.
“Honestly, I was always attracted to wounds from [the time I was] a child. From what I can remember and what my relatives would tell me, I always liked them. I remember as a child going to the polyclinic and liking things like getting the immunisations and looking forward to it and anything medical.
“I can honestly say that I have never ever been affected by whatever I see in a wound. Sometimes we see patients with maggots in their wounds. Sometimes the patients themselves can’t handle [the sight] and they don’t look. They close their eyes, they turn their heads but I’ve never had a problem with it,” she said.
To this day, she has never lost her appetite nor had nightmares after caring for a patient. For her, it has become as natural as breathing. Even the toughest injuries are no match for the dedicated care giver.
The former Lodge School student said her unshakable curiosity made learning a breeze, at least when it came to science. Admittedly, she has never finished a single novel but has read encyclopaedias cover to cover, several times over. In her heart, she truly believed she would become a doctor.
After leaving sixth form, she attended the University of the West Indies, Cave Hill campus but dropped out after one semester because it was hard to finance at the time. Although she had been working as a bank teller, her salary could not cover the high costs.
“After school, I worked at a bank before but I never felt quite comfortable,” she said. “I always knew that I had to be involved in something to do with science.”
So after almost three years, she quit her nine to five to pursue an associate’s degree in nursing at Barbados Community College.
Sure, it may not have been her first choice but Webster said she would do it all again if she could, especially since her role involves much more than applying bandages. That’s because for some patients, wounds are not just physical.
“There’s a lot of counselling that goes on. With some patients you know that the outcome they’re expecting is not going to be the outcome for them. So sometimes you have to prepare patients for that, especially patients with burns and those who were assaulted. Sometimes it is difficult for [women who had been attacked] if it is something that occurred in the face or somewhere visible,” she said.
It’s not always easy to cope when emotions run high, which they often do. Webster has cried with patients and for patients. It pains her deeply when a patient dies or has to lose a body part. After all, she is only human.
Barely taking a break to sit, and sometimes missing a meal, she paces through the wards to tend to patients, day after day. While enduring aches and pains about her shoulders and back, Webster makes sure she gives of her best.
The well-loved and admired senior nurse certainly has her hands full, as she meets up to 75 patients in a day. The 37-year-old said she takes pride in what she does but can become very frustrated at times. She explained that some people, sometimes even doctors, appear not to understand or appreciate the importance of her role.
“My biggest challenge is not getting respect for what I’m capable of . . . . Sometimes I may say things to patients and they want to hear it from a doctor . . . . I don’t have a problem with that but sometimes if feels bad to know something but nobody appreciates that you are capable of knowing or doing something because you’re a nurse,” she said.
This ambitious health care worker has come a long way from being a reserved child growing up in Market Hill, St George. Webster said she was “a bit of a loner” and would often escape into her own imaginative world in her backyard, where she would garden. Despite being surrounded by her brother and sister, cousins and children in the neighbourhood, she enjoyed being alone. Webster said she is a lot bolder now but still prefers to spend hours in her greenhouse over attending social events.
Webster has been responsible for wound care the past six years. During this time she worked on a surgical ward and not surprisingly, decided to set higher goals for herself.
“There was a surgeon, Mr Ferdinand, who was always meticulous in the way he handled his patients. I learned a lot from him . . . . He’s the person who actually told me about Cardiff University and the master’s degree they were offering in wound care. So I researched it and applied. I was a little apprehensive at first because most people transition from associate degree to then bachelor’s degree and then masters. I was going from associate degree straight to masters. Honestly I felt really intimidated.
“When I got to Cardiff I was the only person from the Caribbean. I was the only black person and I was one of two nurses. Most of the class were either doctors or podiatrists. Since I completed my courses I got invited to Yale University hospital to see their practises and how they handle the patients,” she said. Webster completed her master’s in wound care and tissue repair in 2014.
While the opportunity was more gratifying than she had ever imagined, she would become terribly home sick and miss her children, Ziaire and Tarah, whenever she made her twice-a-year trips to Wales for orientation as most of the degree was done online.
Last March, Webster applied for a position as a sister at the QEH, a position that only registered nurses with post-graduate qualification could qualify for. She is now the youngest sister at the hospital. She said her accomplishment, though noteworthy and impressive, raises another issue within the profession.
“There are no specialist titles in Barbados for specialist nurses but overseas I would be referred to either as a clinical nurse specialist or a tissue viability nurse. The issue is that there is no post to appoint a specialist so I had no choice but to apply for a sister post,” she said.
Above all, Webster remains committed to the field, ever willing to give her time and energy. And although she has reaped successful, she said she believes her work is not complete.
“I think I am far from reaching my pinnacle. Success for me will be when specialist trained nurses are accepted as that, as specialists. Because I think that sometimes we don’t get a lot of respect from people who don’t understand what we do or the training that we undertook.
“I have lots of plans for wound care in Barbados, not just at QEH. I want to see the specialty grow in Barbados. So I think I have a lot of responsibility now and I would like to be the pioneer to really get people interested,” she said.