Jean Persaud is a ‘Special Person’“It’s not just about the money. Yes, money is important, but I feel so good when I treat somebody and they come back and say,Authentic Jerseys China, ‘Nurse, that tablet really helped. Look how good I feel.’ That gives me satisfaction.”By Dale AndrewsIf ever you venture into the tiny East Coast Demerara village of Enterprise and mention the name Nurse Jean, any young child on the street could direct you to where she lives. Such is the reverence with which our ‘special person’ this week is held in her community.And maybe that reverence is not limited only to Enterprise, since Jean Persaud served the East Demerara Estates as a nurse all her working life. She is respected by almost every sugar worker who graced those plantations since the early 1970s.The wife of Lloyd Persaud for 45 years and mother of two, Nurse Jean’s work has transcended the sugar industry, making her a household name in the health sector on the East Coast for more than four decades.And while the nurses of today are leaving these shores in droves for a better life overseas, Nurse Jean actually gave up a job in a Jamaica, Queens, New York Hospital to return home in the depressing years of the 1980s.Nurse Jean PersaudEven though she has literally “hung up her gloves” her skill is still very much in demand, so much so that she continues to be honoured by the many organizations that were impressed by her dedication to providing nursing care of the highest standard.But while she is so cherished in Enterprise, Nurse Jean was actually born in Vryheid’s Lust, a few miles lower down the coast. She was the first of Ineze and David Somrah’s nine children.She cannot remember much of her life in Vryheid’s Lust since her family moved to Better Hope in her early years.Jean’s early education was obtained at Better Hope Canadian Mission School and then Better Hope Secondary, where she successfully wrote her School-Leaving and College of Perceptors examinations.“I came from a very humble family and seeing that I had many younger siblings,Jerseys NFL Cheap, I had to get up and assist. So I really did not go further with my education immediately after graduating.”Obviously a career in nursing was not far away, since her love for the profession was actually cultivated from as early as age eight.It was a strange encounter with nurses that actually stirred the love for the profession.“I was sick in hospital. I had Tonsilitis and had surgery. Looking at the nurses going to and fro and the way how they looked after the patients… and the lovely uniforms… from then on I fell in love with nursing and I always told myself that I would love to be one.”She didn’t wait too long to start preparing herself for the profession. In school she began doing First Aid as a precursor.“You know like when they have any incident in school… when children fall down, I would play the role of a nurse and perform First Aid. Some children don’t like to see blood, but that wasn’t a problem for me and onto now, it’s not a problem,Cheap China Jerseys,” she said.After leaving school she was eventually accepted at the Georgetown Hospital in 1964, but that was during the period when Guyana experienced a terrible social disturbance rendering travel to the city problematic for the young aspiring nurse from the East Coast of Demerara.So in order to continue her chosen career, she relocated to the Lusignan Hospital where she enrolled as a trainee nurse.For her own safety during that trying period, the young trainee chose to stay at the facility’s hostel which enabled her to remain always close to the job.A few months later when the disturbance had abated, she was once again sent to the Georgetown Hospital where she was seconded, and where she eventually enrolled to be trained as a professional staff nurse.She was in batch number 28.Nurse Jean displays the plaque she received as an honouree of the Enterprise Support Group, represented by Rasheed Baksh (left) and Videsh Lall. At the end of her training, Nurse Jean’s first posting was to the Guyana Sugar Corporation where in 1969, she was sent to the Enterprise Health Centre to start a rewarding career of providing health care to mainly sugar workers and their immediate families.But the lure of a better life pulled her to the United States of America where her skills were in great demand.She explained that to work as a nurse in the US she had to sit the High School equivalent as well as the State Board Examination, which she successfully did.During her stay in the US, she also successfully completed the Medical Assistant Programme.However, after that stint overseas and despite the better pay, her love for her homeland overwhelmed her and she gleefully returned to serv