Ten years ago Bermuda was battling a nursing shortage. Only 38 per cent of those who worked for the Bermuda Hospitals Board were Bermudian.

To tackle the problem, veteran nurse Kathy-Ann Swan, and others in the community, developed an associate of science nursing programme at the Bermuda College.

“In the early stages of setting up, the challenge was just ascertaining if Bermuda could actually sustain a nursing programme,” said Ms Swan, now director of nursing education at Bermuda College.

It could. Since its inception, it has turned out 45 Bermudian nurses to fill the void.

Josephine Bean was in the inaugural group.

“Initially, I wanted to become a missionary,” Ms Bean told The Royal Gazette. “Nursing was one of those fields where I could branch out and do different things to help, not just by spreading the gospel. For example, I could go with a surgical team if they were deployed to different parts of the world.”

The only problem was she would have to go overseas to qualify as a nurse. She was running her own business, Bermuda At Home Services, providing care and cleaning services for the elderly, so it was hard to leave everything behind.

Then she heard about the Bermuda College’s new nursing programme.

“I thought that was great,” she said.

The course meant she could avoid the expense of airfare and room and board in another country. It also meant she did not have to leave her work.

“It was really the perfect opportunity,” Ms Bean said.

She started with around ten other students, but by the end of things that number had fallen to five.

“Some people dropped out,” Ms Bean said.

Since then, the number of students in the cohort has fluctuated annually but is never more than 12.

The Bermuda College partners with the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, Lahey Hospital in Burlington, Massachusetts and Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Nursing students spend two week stints in these places gaining extra experience in areas such as paediatric medicine or medical surgery.

Ms Bean spent two weeks at The Hospital for Sick Children and the same at Temple University.

In Toronto, she saw a range of paediatric patients. As much as she loved the experience of working with children, her passion remained with the elderly.

“They are more of a forgotten population,” she said.

While studying overseas she found that what was being taught at the Bermuda College was exactly the same as in other places.

“The nursing programme is not unique to Bermuda,” Ms Swan said. “Annually, about 100,000 people graduate from the programme worldwide. It can be found in all US states and is built on an American model. We write the same board exam as they do. There is really no difference.”

When Bermuda College students finish their nursing studies, they can pick the date they want to take the nursing board exams in New York City. Ms Bean was the first person at the Bermuda College to sit these tests.

“There were something like 365 questions you had to answer,” she said. “If you are doing exceedingly well, or really poorly, the exam computer shuts off after 75 questions.”

The candidate does not know if they have passed or failed until they receive their exam results in the mail.

However, Ms Bean had a trick up her sleeve to figure it out.

“If you have failed, you can register online again, right away,” she said. “If you have passed, it will not let you register again.”

She could not sign up for the board exam a second time, so she knew she had passed.

“I was really excited,” she said. “I had not told anyone that I was even going away to take the exams, and I did not tell them until I got the notice in the mail three days later confirming I had passed.”

She is now working in nursing in a clinical setting, and continues to run her business.

“It absolutely helped me with Bermuda At Home Services,” she said. “If a patient has a bedsore, I can deal with that. I can go into the community and give medicines intravenously. If something needs to be done, I do not have to call a nurse; I can do it myself.”

Ms Bean said right now, there are quite a few Bermudian nurses in the community, and there are quite a few coming into the programme at the Bermuda College.

Ms Swan said nursing comes with shift work and a few other downsides, but ultimately, there is a lot of opportunity in the profession.

She said putting the nursing associates together was a team effort between staff at the Bermuda College and nursing leaders from King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, the Department of Health, the chief nurse and the Bermuda Prison Service.

“We still meet every other month, just to make sure that we are on the same page with the needs that we have,” she said. “We never thought that we would have so many graduates coming out of the programme. We have to make sure that everything is in place when it comes to transitioning them into practice, as well.”

Ms Swan said when they first started the programme it was about negotiating and trying to convince people of the necessity for the programme, but they eventually got there.

“We have grown up,” she said. “Now we also have pre-med classes, pre-health, and diagnostic imaging. We have some fabulous faculty members, clinical instructors and lecturers.”

The nursing shortage is still a concern.

“Guest workers add value to the healthcare system but the programme at the college was to assist in decreasing the over-reliance on guest workers and provide another recruitment stream,” she said.

People interested in entering the Bermuda College nursing programme can call recruitment officer Tyson Flood at 236-9000 ext 4099 or e-mail tysonflood@college.bm.

“He will show you the first steps to applying,” Ms Swan said.