Donna McKoy has always had a passion for helping people, particularly the young and the elderly and her many years working as a registered nurse, in Jamaica and the United States has allowed her to leave positive marks in the lives of many persons.A resident of Lime Hall in St Ann, Donna McKoy, who grew up in Kingston, settled in the Garden Parish after she met and married, Stewart McKoy, a medical doctor who practices in the parish.“I am a person who likes to talk to people, to find out what their beliefs are, where they are going, especially young people. I like to see myself as somebody with something to offer to young people,” she told the North Coast Times. “Because, there are so many bad influences out there for them I like to see them go straight because once they get on the wrong road, it’s hard to get off that track.”She said that while she likes to guide young people she also has a very soft spot for older persons. She explained that many older persons are in a bad position in life, partially brought on by what they did when they were younger. However, she is still considerate of their needs.
WORK IN HEALTH
Mrs. McKoy has worked at the University Hospital of the West Indies, Buff Bay Hospital in Portland and the St Ann’s Bay Hospital in St. Ann. She entered nursing in 1976, soon after her graduation and was placed in Portland where , in a very short period of time , she was able to make an impact on the lives of many of her patients and colleagues.“Oh! That was a nice time, that was a learning experience right out of school. Those were the days when you could walk freely on the road without anybody harassing you,” she said of her time at the Buff Bay Hospital.After marriage brought her to St. Ann, Mrs McKoy spent several years at the St. Ann’s Bay Hospital and was instrumental in the establishment of the blood bank. She migrated for a short period and during that time she worked at hospitals in New York and Florida in the USA.On her return to Jamaica, she seized the opportunity to further her studies, especially since her children were attending school in Kingston. She later studied to become a pharmacist and also pursued her Master’s degree in Public Health.She accepted a job with the Ministry of Health working as Registrar for health institutions and facilities and, during that three-year stint, she was involved in the registration of public and private nursing homes. She travelled all over the island inspecting these facilities. As part of her duties, she also had to develop a guideline for the facilities to practice and it was based on those guidelines that they were evaluated , she explained.“I think we got them to really see that quality in nursing homes is giving that kind of care to persons unable to help themselves, it had some value and they really needed to maintain a high standard, so we got them on board,” she added. She later returned to St. Ann where she worked part time at the hospital’s pharmacy, before moving on to North East Regional Health Authority as quality coordinator for the region which covers St. Ann, St. Mary and Portland.There she looked at operationalising standards already written and got all the facilities to work towards attaining and maintaining those standards.“So we did work with infection control, accident and emergency, morgues within hospitals, drug and therapeutic committees and that included looking at what drug were being used and maintaining the VEN (Vital, Essential and Necessary drug) list and seeing to it that there were fewer errors in giving medication,” she explained.
Mrs. McKoy works as a pharmacist at the Ocho Rios Health Centre and although she is still in an area which she enjoys, she told The Times that she misses nursing and she has no regrets having entered that profession. “It wasn’t a bad choice at all because even though I am a pharmacist I miss nursing, I like talking to people and when you are doing nursing you are talking to persons while delivering the care and you find out about their family and what they want to do and you encourage them to do what they can to better themselves so I like that,” she said.Before nursing school, she had thoughts about going into tourism, but she said something just felt a little false about tourism. “I know the customer is always right, but I wanted that to be right for my people, not for anybody necessary coming here, not for foreigners, I wanted it to be right for my people so I went into nursing and I have not regretted it.” She added, “The experience has been good, I am not going fuss about the pay, you go into it for the love, in fact all of us in my group who did nursing we were in it for the love of the people and all my batch mates have done well, a lot have migrated but they have done well.”Mrs. McKoy explained too that she is very keen on ensuring that she delivers the highest quality customer service to her patients and colleagues at work at all times and she wants especially people in the public sector to ensure that they deliver the highest quality service at all times.
VOLUNTARY WORK
Mrs. McKoy is a member of the Soroptimist Club of Northern Jamaica; member of Friends of St. Ann’s Bay Hospital and the Jamaica Cancer Society (St. Ann/St. Mary chapter) and is also a member of the St. Ann’s Bay Methodist Church where she has been working with the youth group.Through the Soroptimist Club she has been doing a lot of volunteer work. One of the projects in which she is involved is the mentoring to young girls age 11-13 at the Retreat Primary and Junior High School in St. Mary.Mrs. McKoy wants to get more young people involved in volunteerism. She said a lot of the voluntary work in which she in involved, she wants to pass on to young people. “A lot of older people are doing volunteerism, but the young people need to step up now and get involved in volunteerism, when they say they can’t find a job they just need to get involved, then they will meet people and you hear about what is going on,” she said.Mrs. McKoy is also a Toastmaster and she is also looking to establish a toastmasters club in Ocho Rios.She and her husband have three children and three grandchildren. She enjoys a good game of tennis and enjoys reading. She also loves gardening and spends a lot of her time working on her orchids. She loves international travel and has seen many parts of the world and her suitcase is still packed.
