Hire more nurses for field hospitals, NAJ says

The Jamaican Government has been urged to hire out-of-work nurses to staff its COVID-19 field hospitals as the public health sector buckles under the burden of mounting infections.

That is one of the decisions weighing on the mind of Prime Minister Andrew Holness, who is expected to announce new or extended coronavirus measures on Tuesday.

One hundred and fifty-nine persons are hospitalised with the potentially fatal disease, though only 26, or 16 per cent, are classified as either moderately or critically ill.

That hospitalisation aggregate, however, represents a marked shift upwards in admissions amid a record pace of new infections surpassing a thousand in less than a week.

Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) President Patsy Edwards-Henry said that the union has not received any official communication about additional nurses to staff COVID-19 field hospitals.

Field hospitals are being established across the island to provide 152 additional bed spaces to facilitate the treatment of persons with COVID-19.

“We are operating at a level which is way below what is required,” she said of the current staff complement.

The NAJ president disclosed that at least 80 per cent of nurses across the island are experiencing burnout.

‘Great stress’ for nurses

Edwards-Henry revealed that in most hospitals, areas have been retrofitted to house suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients, putting “great stress” on the already limited number of nurses in each facility.

“The association has concerns as to how or where they will find nursing staff to man them,” the NAJ president said.

“It would be outrageous if it is being thought that the same nurses at the facilities who are already, as we speak, burnt out and are experiencing low morale will fill those spaces.”

She pointed out that a number of nurses have tested positive and that others in quarantine have not been receiving timely COVID-19 test results, noting that some have waited up to a week and a half.

“I am convinced that the Government has a plan in place for these field hospitals which does not necessarily include our nurses who are in-house now. There are a number of nurses who are seeking employment, and it is my hope that we will employ,” she said.

Field hospitals, she said, would need a cadre of nurses to “... manage the unit, do the allocation of staff, order resources, and get equipment”, as well as perform clinical functions.