Jamaican-born Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP) Dr. Dawn Marie Silvera has extolled what she describes as the “sacred call of nursing”, upholding that nursing is “more than a profession.”
“It is a ministry,” said Dr. Silvera, a FNP at Westchester Community Health Center in Mount Vernon in suburban New York City, in delivering the featured address at the 28th Annual Vernese Weeks Scholarship Luncheon of the Bronx-Manhattan-Westchester (BMW) Chapter of the New York-based Caribbean-American Nurses Association (CANA), at Eastwood Manor in the Bronx, on Saturday, Oct. 4.
“We step into hospital rooms, clinics, and homes carrying not just medical skills, but a healing presence,” she added, alluding to Neville Goddard, who spoke of “imagination as the creative power of God within us.”
“In every interaction, we imagine wholeness, strength, and restoration for those in our care,” continued Dr. Silvera, who is board-certified by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). “We are, as Joel Goldsmith said, ‘the transparency through which God’s love shines.’”
Noting that Charles Fillmore taught that love is “the great harmonizer,” Dr. Silvera said that, “when we touch a patient’s hand, listen to their fears, or advocate for their dignity, we are practicing divine love in action.
“Our compassion is not weakness — it is strength, for it connects us to the infinite source,” she added. “Emmet Fox often reminded us that our thought is our life.
“As we care for others, let us also nurture our own souls,” she urged. “Take moments of stillness, pray, meditate, breathe deeply, for, as Myrtle Fillmore affirmed, ‘you are a beloved child of God, and wholeness is your birthright.’”
Dr. Silvera honored the nurses in the audience, not just for the work you do, but for the spirit you bring.
“You are healers, encouragers, and vessels of divine love,” she said. “May you continue to walk in strength, joy, and the unshakable, knowing that your work is holy.
“As Florence Scovel Shinn reminds us, ‘there is no greater wealth than peace of mind,’ and, as nurses, we bring that peace to others in their most vulnerable moments,” Dr. Silvera added.
She noted that the CANA BMW Chapter, founded in 1994 in memory of Barbadian-born Registered Nurse Vernese Weekes, has engaged in health outreach, medical missions to Caribbean nations, scholarship programs, disaster relief, advocacy, and public health education within the US Caribbean Diaspora communities.
Dr. Silvera said that CANA’s mission includes professional growth, education, networking, information exchange, and community health outreach among Caribbean heritage nurse professionals.
She said it acts as “a conduit for updates on trends, issues impacting nursing and health care globally, with special attention on Caribbean and US communities.
Dr. Silvera obtained a diploma in nursing from the University Hospital of the West Indies in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1983; a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the College of New Rochelle in 1996; and a Master of Science in Nursing from Lehman College in the Bronx in 2005.
In 2010, she received a Graduate Degree Certificate as a Family Nurse Practitioner from Pace University in New York. In 2016, she obtained a Doctor of Nursing Practice degree from Walden University in Minneapolis, MN.
Dr. Silvera stated that she worked at the Ministry of Health in Jamaica, at Port Maria Hospital, and St. Ann’s Bay Hospital.
She said she also worked at Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx for 14 years, at the Jewish Guild for the Blind Nursing Home in Yonkers, New York, for five years, and at St. Cabrini Nursing Home as an administrative nursing coordinator.
Dr. Silvera said her first job as a nurse practitioner was with Family Health-Gericine Solution in New York.
She said her doctoral project was on “Development of a Church-Based Educational Program to Increase Prostate Cancer Screening for Black Men 40 and Older.”
In 2020, Dr. Silvera said she published her first book, “With God, I did it, a Memoir.”
