Embrace us - Johnson wants authorities to engage more local nurses rather than turning to foreigners
Published:Tuesday | October 13, 2020 | 12:08 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Immediate past president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ), Carmen Johnson, is urging the regional health authorities to make it easier for local nurses to find employment in the badly understaffed health sector.
While acknowledging Health and Wellness Minister Dr Christopher Tufton’s recent announcement to engage 127 newly certified nurses in the public sector, Johnson said that the regional health authorities have been traditionally slow in embracing local nurses, leaving the Government to turn to contracted medical workers from overseas.
“The challenge is that the Ministry of Health says they will employ local nurses, but the regional health authorities are slow in accepting this need for employment. When the regions are slow in accepting it, you find that the ministry will take in Cubans, who do not have any problems to get employment because they come in on a contract, while our nurses are still waiting,” Johnson told The Gleaner yesterday.
“Our hope is that the regions will wake up and recognise the burdens we face in the healthcare system and the need to employ these individuals because many of the Cubans have still not yet completed their orientation since they are still not understanding what to do. So the ministry has agreed to employ the nurses, and I hope it will filter down to the regional health authorities,” added Johnson.
She said that the NAJ had recently been urging the health ministry to employ more local nurses before bringing in overseas help.
“Between four and five years ago, we had a number of nurses who graduated and were not able to be employed because none of the regional health authorities were employing them because they claimed they had budgetary constraints,” she said. “Many of those nurses went to the United States or the United Kingdom or into other fields, and that caused a drain on the system for replacements.”
Approximately 500 nurses leave Jamaica every year to seek greener pastures overseas, with 1,100 nurses leaving the profession between 2018 and 2019. Earlier this year, it was estimated that 1,000 nurses are needed to plug existing local vacancies.
Last Thursday, Tufton said that 127 new nurses, 20 midwives and 121 medical officers would be hired to help ease the current strain on the public health sector due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Tufton said that the Government would be spending $80 million on a health worker welfare programme to assist healthcare professionals who are on the front lines dealing with the pandemic. That programme includes mental health assistance for nurses and doctors, who are at risk for burnout or feeling overwhelmed by stress from dealing with the risks of the COVID-19 virus.