Thirteen health workers from several hinterland communities who were recently trained in information technology (IT) were urged to incorporate the new knowledge in their work.

A simple graduation ceremony was held on Wednesday at Ramphal House, Ministry of Foreign Affairs for the group of health professionals who represent the third batch to have benefited from this Ministry of Health, Regional Health Services initiative.

The target group for the basic six-week computer training were staff nurses, medexes and midwives from Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine. With this basic computer training the health workers will now be able to easily access the internet to gather information pertaining to their work.

Minister within the Ministry of Health Dr Bheri Ramsaran said in his charge that this achievement needed to be highlighted since it was the way forward.

The minister observed that many of the good healthcare workers who have many years of experience are not fully educated because they are not computer literate. Acknowledging that the course participants had to be trained in cramped conditions, Ramsaran thanked them for completing the course in spite of this.

“The challenge now is to expand and use that knowledge,” he said, stressing that they have now committed themselves to access the virtual health libraries where information from thousands of books, medical reports and papers are available.

Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health Hydar Ally described the occasion as significant in that another batch of students has been exposed to computer education.

He congratulated the tutor Drupattie Miller for a job well done. Ally told the graduates, “unless we can process, interpret and transmit information, we are going to be left behind.”

Meanwhile an elated Miller told Stabroek News that she had a wonderful time teaching her third batch of IT students.

She said too that on December 22, a fourth batch will be graduating bringing the number of those completing the programme to 60.

Miller told those gathered that the training programme which commenced in 2006 seeks to make every health worker computer literate.

Pheona Johnny-Burnett, a nurse from Region Nine, said that she hoped others from the hinterland would have the opportunity to benefit from the programme.