Jubilee Hospital

Good morning Blogger

I attended Queen Victoria Jubilee Hospital for the last day of my elective experience.........The Hospital is one of the largest Maternity and Gynae/Obstetric public Hospitals in J.A. The Hospital has 5 floors which make up the hospital. The Hospital accommodates 9-10,000 deliveries per year. The Head Sister informed me that at present they have 20-25 deliveries per day. (They have 6-7 staff on a good day on labour ward.)

A Midwifery School  commenced in the 1980s at this hospital which came to a hault due to a shortage of staff. In 1997 the school was reinstated. The Midwifery school offers a 2 year direct entry midwifery program and a 1 year Midwifery program for Nurses.

In March 2010 a "Wellness Clinic" commenced. (It was revealed that staff and patients were in need of Professional staff to talk to and help them through any difficulties they were facing.)  The Clinic has staff that comprise of Social workers and Psychologists.The clinic is on a Wednesday and commences at 9am.(Women who have experienced miscarriage or a loss of a baby are also referred to this service.)

Women are cared for by their own health clinic in their area......The Antenatal Ward is a high risk ward.
There is a Family Planning clinic on a Monday to Friday and also a Fertility control Clinic.
The Health Care is Free at this Hospital. (Just imagine how many patients and the difference in personality's that the staff would meet???It must be challenging at the least....)
The Uniform for everyone is white accompanied with a white hat....the difference between the nurse and the midwife is the nurse has a green stripe on her hat.....and the sisters of the Ward have a coloured belt on.
I was informed that I would not be allowed to take photographs of the hospital......
Mothers are advised that they must think of a name of their child before being admitted for delivery....as the babies are registered on the postnatal Ward before discharge.

The Antenatal ward has a capacity of 40 beds.....at present their are 50 patients....so they are housed in a ward opposite which is normally used as an isolation ward for infectious diseases like malaria, Tb etc. There are 3 Breastfeeding coordinators (UNICEF awarded this hospital as Breastfeeding friendly....they are in the process of reinstating the award).

The Postnatal ward has to wards......The Eastern side which caters for Abnormal postnatal women (women with problems postnatal whether it be post operative or gynae/obstetric related)  and has 27 Beds....and the Western side which caters for Normal postnatal women and holds 63 beds.
The Labour ward has 5 beds and one room for examinations...(prior to admission). There is a High risk room with 10 beds, Induction room with 10 beds, and a  or if they developwaiting room with 10 beds. There is a postpartum area with 17 beds split in two rooms. There are 2 operating theatres....1 Gynae and 1 obstetric.

The Hospital has a special care nursery which holds 35 cots but has 75 babies....you work that one out.....They have 7-8 staff and have 4 different rooms.......1st room is for babies on CPAP......2nd room is for the babies coming off CPAP...3rd room is the room for babies who need nursing and 4th room is for babies who need isolation.

There is an antenatal Clinic on the grounds.....on a Thursday it is solely for teenagers....They have an average of 80 teenagers per week attending.....A high under age pregnancy rate....youngest age is 12 years.......Women do not book at this hospital until they reach 32 weeks gestation or if they develop a problem before hand, in which case they have a Early pregnancy unit which is comprised of 14 beds for women of 20 weeks gestation and under.The antenatal Clinic have an average of 136 women attending per day....(not including the teenagers..)They have 6 qualified staff....but on occasion have only 3.

I did not get the opportunity to actually experience the staff at work.....as the staff could not facilitate this. The overall look of the hospital was very nice and big and clean. It was evident to see that they have an influx of patients but all are accomadated and no one is turned away.

Takecare Miss P