From Martin to Ms Marks
Public Health Minister that poor nurse Marks has breached public service rules. With the undisclosed findings from an internal investigation and her file being forwarded to the Department of Public Service for action, it seems that the likely sanction and upcoming retaliation are meant to discourage similar behaviour by others.
Earlier, Minister of Communities, Ronald Bulkan promised that he would intervene if he establishes that nurse Marks was transferred because she had blown the whistle, but since, he has been ominously silent. At the time, Bulkan had bold words, insisting “We cannot discourage whistle blowers we have to promote persons out there who are prepared and who have the courage to expose corruption wherever it may be taking place. We cannot sweep things under the carpet.”
A year and a half ago, the new Government released draft whistleblower legislation to fight corruption and other wrongs in the public and private sectors by encouraging and facilitating employees’ disclosures of “improper conduct” in good faith and the public interest. Long called for by anti-corruption groups, the Protected Disclosures (Whistleblower) Bill 2015 was published on the website of the Official Gazette but it is still not yet laid in the National Assembly. It seeks to regulate the receiving, investigating or otherwise dealing with such revelations while moving to protect whistleblowers from being subjected to “occupational detriment.” According to the explanatory memorandum, the Bill marks another step towards full compliance with the InterAmerican Convention against Corruption, SN reported.
One key study in the Journal of Clinical Nursing found that whistleblowing can have a serious, long-term impact on people’s emotional well-being and colleagues and employers have a responsibility to support those involved. The authors point out that nurses who blow the whistle may be unprepared for the negative longterm effect it will have on their personal, physical, emotional and professional wellbeing. However, they also stress the important role that whistleblowing has played in large-scale inquiries that have led to improvements in healthcare safety and quality.
Outraged bloggers on SN’s online site recommended that Ms Marks deserved nomination for a national award, a pay rise and a promotion, as the feedback proved mostly positive with one even advising that she resign and head overseas to a better paying post, and another offering financial help. Suggesting that the Government establishes an anti-corruption cash mechanism to reward persons like Ms Marks, a commentator recognised that “money is a very powerful motivator” in Guyana.
Nurse Marks is sadly learning that standing up in a profession that has long closed ranks, is as Carter puts it in another poem this time about love, “no easy thing.” Research shows that nurses are more likely to speak out than any other healthcare provider and the few hardy souls who dare stand up alone in a highstress and demanding profession that traditionally closes ranks bolstered by the near impenetrable wall of persecuting officialdom, deserve our admiration and full support, not vilification and punishment.
As she stated: “I knew that speaking out in Guyana would have had some form of victimization attached so I was kind of prepared, but thinking that … I would have been transferred? No I did not expect this at all so soon.” As Carter beautifully sums it up in the last verse of his profound poem:
Rain was the cause of roofs. Birth was the cause of beds. But life is the question asking what is the way to die.
ID celebrates Martin Carter’s June 8 birthday and feels for Sherlyn Marks. She is prepared to also make a donation to Ms Marks’ legal fund that takes up the anti-muzzling cause be it for press freedom or personal persecution.