Expanded, specialised training in pipeline for nurses – Health Minister

…as Govt addresses high overseas recruitment rate

A current shortfall in the nurse population to adequately service demands locally has Government geared towards increasing intake into the nursing programme currently offered, and introducing specialised training.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony, as he was being engaged during the recently concluded Budget Estimates, told the National Assembly that there are enough doctors in the system. The challenge, however, lies in the shortfall of nurses.
According to him, this issue exists countrywide, expect at the Linden Hospital Complex where the quota is satisfactory. Part of the plan to address this hurdle is to increase training capacity in the programmes offered, and include specialised courses.
“Where I think there is some difficulty is the amount of nurses that we have. It’s not only at the Georgetown Public Hospital but we need to look across the system as well. One of the things we will be doing is expanding some of the nursing programmes and in the future years, to have a larger programme to train more nurses and to offer specialised nursing programmes. In some of the departments, it’s not just about having regular nursing but we need to have the specialisation. Some of these changes we will be able to do,” said the Minister.
The Minister informed the house that a reason for this drawback is linked to an exodus, whereby trained nurses are leaving Guyana to take up opportunities with foreign recruiters.
“We have a problem and that is the active recruitment of nurses from Guyana. We have been losing nurses because of this active recruitment. We’re looking at various ways we can slow that down. I don’t think we might be able to ever stop it but at least to slow it down and be able to produce more facilities and so forth.”
According to him, many recruiters offer arrangements for the nurses and their families to travel to the respective country. While Government cannot compete with the salaries offered in some countries, he noted that they are exploring multiple avenues, including non-monetary incentives, such as day-care and other facilities for the nurse population.
“We have to address retention. That’s a much bigger problem. To compete with the salaries that are being paid in the UK, that’s a very tall order. What is happening right now, is that when a nurse is offered a job, that offer is not just for the nurse to go to the UK but for the entire family to accompany the nurse. These are the dynamics that we have and we will have to work to see how we can slow it down or address it.”
He added, “I wouldn’t say that we have perfect solutions but we have to work on addressing some of these things…There are other non-monetary incentives that we can put in place and we are actively considering some of those incentives. To increase salaries, that would require a lot more detail and study to see how that can be done”. (G12)