“I was the first girl of 10 children. Both my parents had high expectations for me,” Ena Robinson-Bailey says of her childhood in Jamaica.
“They saw me as a role model. And, my mother was my role model. She instilled in me the qualities for success, which I use every day, qualities like generosity, faith and respect.”
After completing training in nursing in Jamaica, Ena migrated to the U.S. where she continued her education earning a Bachelor of Science degree at Jersey State College, a Masters in Public Health at Hunter College and earned a certificate as a nurse practitioner from Stony Brook College.
Twenty years ago, she started Carelink, a licensed home care agency with two locations in Floral Park and Brooklyn.
“I believe we are providing a valuable service to clients who would otherwise be in a facility,” she says of the care her agency provides.
Carelink employs 300 nurses, home health and personal care aides, as well as professionals in other disciplines. Their services provided in the five boroughs and Nassau and Suffolk include nursing, home attendants, physical therapy, speech therapy and other health related services.
Ms. Robinson-Bailey’s most recent business venture is a social adult day care center in Hempstead, New York. While she says she is semi-retired, she continues to work more than 50 hours per week.
Looking back, Robinson-Bailey attributes her elementary school principal in Jamaica as the one who put her along the path to becoming a health care professional. “I chose this field for the opportunity to help others and to make a difference in people’s lives.”
