208 HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS CONFERRED AT RCSI BAHRAIN

For the third consecutive year and under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, a graduating ceremony was held at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland- Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI Bahrain) campus on the 11th June 2012. His Excellency Shaik Ali bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Deputy Prime Minister of Bahrain, was present to represent the patronage. A total of 208 graduates from postgraduate and undergraduate courses were conferred in the presence of HRH, members of the government, parliamentarians, regional and overseas diplomats, family and friends.
The class of 2012 consisted of: 64 graduates of the School of Medicine, 77 graduates from the School of Nursing, 33 Masters graduates (from both nursing and medicine)  and 34 graduates from the Institute of Leadership.   Within this group included the 28 MSc nursing students who are the first to receive these qualifications within the GCC. They will all join a long list of RCSI graduates dating back 225 years.
Speeches were given by both undergraduate schools valedictorians; Talal Hilal and Maysa Al Rumaihi gave inspiring addresses reflective of their time at RCSI Bahrain, and included many accomplishments and milestones as the Class of 2012. They thanked their parents and the sponsors: Tamkeen, BDF, Ministry of Education and other private entities, without whom, their education would not have been possible. They paid tribute to the staff of RCSI Bahrain, both academic and administration, who had nurtured them during their years of study thereby training 208 healthcare professionals with world recognised qualifications and expertise.
Speaking at the ceremony, the President of RCSI Bahrain, Professor Collins, reminded the newly conferred healthcare professionals, “You are now entering the workforce at a time of considerable turbulence amid economic and political upheaval all over the world. You will not only be the health professionals of the future in the countries in which you will live and work, you will be the best educated, best paid and most influential professional groups in any country in which you work. This places a heavy responsibility on you. You will need constantly to develop and refine your knowledge and expertise so that you can keep pace with the rapidly evolving knowledge base in the Healthcare sector and to ensure that your knowledge and skills are progressed and advanced on an ongoing basis. You will also need to understand and be conscious of the value system out of which you work. Healthcare is by definition a caring profession. As nurses and doctors you are not engineers who work on the machine of the human body – you must rather work out of the moral purpose of doing good. It is impossible to conceptualize a good Nurse or a good Doctor as one who is emotionally disengaged from the moral project of enhancing human health and human welfare and of challenging any factors in the wider environment which in any way damages or depletes human health and welfare. As idealistic value-driven and critically thinking professionals you will bring energy, clarity, expertise and social purpose to the professions which you are today graduating into.”