CHARLENE ESTWICK WILL NOT be satisfied with working only in mental health care. She also wants to become an administrator so she can effect changes in the management of mental illness.
The registered nurse, who works in psychiatric care, is completing a course in phlebotomy, an online master’s degree in health care management with the University of Liverpool, and also has plans to pursue a doctorate in business administration with a speciality in health care management.
Estwick, 30, a Garrison Secondary School alumna and former parish ambassador for St John, said she was always interested in health care although nursing was not her first choice.
“Initially, I did pre-health sciences and after that I wanted to do health information management, but the course was not offered that year so I put down nursing as a second choice. It happened that I got called for nursing. I hem and hawed about going but I enjoyed it. And even though I wanted to leave in the first year to do the health information management when it was offered, I was persuaded to stay and I completed the associate degree in nursing,” she said.
She liked her first months on the job so much that she decided to pursue the post-associate degree in psychiatric nursing to make herself more marketable.
“When I went in there, I did not know what to expect. Most of my classmates were working at the Psychiatric Hospital and I thought I had made a bad decision,” she said. “I tried my best and was the most outstanding academic and clinical student, and was given the Psychiatric Director’s Award for exemplary performance.”
Hereditary factors
Now fully immersed in psychiatric nursing, Estwick said mental illness was real and that at any time anyone could be affected by it, with either hereditary or environmental factors the cause.
She now aims to help people with mental illness get back to functioning in society.
However, all her studies are with a goal in mind. Some day she wants to be at the helm of a major health care facility.
What keeps her motivated is being able to change things for the better. Daily as a nurse, Estwick sees the toll mental illness could take on a person.
She wants to see the stigma attached to the disorder lifted.
“Anyone can get mental health issues and persons need to open their mind, know that it is real and can happen at any time, and forget about labelling people who are affected,” she said.
In addition to nursing, Estwick has another love – baking. She has been making her name in the local cake and pastry industry since 2015.
Estwick said she started out baking for friends or anyone who requested a cake as she was seeking a source of income after she quit her job to further her studies. She completed a cake and pastry-making course with the Barbados Vocational Training Board and the business took off from there.
“I always loved to bake but never really had the skills, but I took the opportunity to capitalise on the course and while studying, I would take the cake to class and my friends would taste it and suggest improvements,” she said.
Now the orders are rolling in to Cakes by Angel, thanks to word of mouth as well as her Facebook page.
As a full-time nurse and student, Estwick sees the business flourishing one day and hopes to employ others and share her skills with them.
That way, apart from helping patients with mental health issues, she also wants to guide others towards their full potential. (LK)
