Four Cuban medical students on Summer Employment Programme at JNF Hospital
Basseterre, St. Kitts, August 6, 2025 (JNF Hospital Communications) — Four of the Federation’s illustrious students studying at the University of Havana in Cuba are currently at the JNH General Hospital for acclimatisation with the St. Kitts and Nevis medical system, courtesy of the annual Summer Observership Employment Programme.
According to Director of Health Institutions within the Ministry of Health, Dr Jenson Morton, the four students, two who are 5th year medical students and the other two 3rd year medical students are being guided by JNF General Hospital’s Internist, Dr Babu Chinnaswamy through the various departments at the hospital.
“All four will be rotated through various departments, with the schedules for rotation indicated in the Medicine, Surgery, Maternity, and Paediatrics Departments,” observed Dr Morton. “They will work at the hospital from Monday to Friday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with mornings designated for the indicated department and the afternoon dedicated for the emergency room.”
The fifth year medical students Ms Yaruska Irish who will be available for five weeks, and Mr Rashumba Gilbert who will be available for seven weeks, started on Monday July 14. Third year students, Ms Kaedida Fough and Ms Dolicia Barry, started on Monday July 28 and will be available for five weeks.
“While Ms Irish and Mr Gilbert would have worked at the JNF General Hospital before, no orientation was needed,” explained Dr Morton. “But as for Ms Fough and Ms Barry who are working at the JNF General Hospital for the first time, their orientation took place on their first day of work which was on Monday July 28.”
For the past 13 years, the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis has had the observership employment programme with local students enrolled in Cuba. Via this programme, students who return to the Federation for summertime, at their own expense, may apply to work as student medical officers at the J.N.F. General Hospital, where they are financially compensated, usually via the Skills Training Empowerment Programme (S.T.E.P.).
“These students must be in their third year of medical study or higher,” underscored Dr Morton. “The purpose of the programme is to assist these students in their acclimatisation with the St. Kitts and Nevis medical system.”
Overseeing their stay at the JNF General Hospital for the Summer Observership Employment Programme is Dr Suresh Chinnaswamy, Internist at the JNF General Hospital, who emphasised that the four trainees who had come to get acquainted with the medical profession and how to practise and see the patients are doing very well and are learning a lot.
Ms Yaruska Irish, who is from Conaree Village is one of the four students in for the summer period of 2025, and will spend five weeks from July 14 to August 15 on the programme. Her first two weeks were in the Medicine Department, third and fourth weeks would be in the Surgery Department and her final week in the Maternity Department.
Doing general medicine at the university, Ms Irish who worked as a secretary at a Lawyer’s office now says that she is privileged to be doing internal medicine rotation with Dr Babu Chinnaswamy at JNF General Hospital where she notes that she has seen a lot of improvements in terms of healthcare delivery.
Mr Rashumba Gilbert, also a fifth year medicine student, and who is on the programme for seven weeks from July 14 to August 29, is from Lodge. His first two weeks were in the Surgery Department, third and fourth weeks will be in the Medicine Department, fifth and sixth weeks in the Paediatrics Department, and the seventh week in the Maternity Department.
Third year medicine student Ms Kaedida Fough who is from Dieppe Bay worked with the Development Bank of St. Kitts and Nevis before she joined the university. She is on the programme for five weeks from July 28 to August 29, of which first two weeks are in the Maternity Department, third and fourth weeks will be in Surgery Department, and the final week in Medicine Department.
Ms Dolicia Barry, also on the programme for five weeks, from July 28 to August 29, will in the first two weeks be in the Paediatrics Department, third and fourth weeks in the Medicine Department, and the final week in the Surgery Department.
“I was working as a science teacher, first at the Washington High School and then at the Basseterre High School,” said Ms Barry. “I chose to do medicine for a bunch of reasons, one of the reasons for sure is that when I was young I was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis and my paediatrician at the time was the late Dr Ian Jacobs, who I certainly admired for his work ethic and his love for children.”
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