Cuban nurses take a year to learn Patois

With the constant migration of Jamaican nurses to North America, the Ministry of Health and Wellness continues to recruit nurses from overseas to address the trend of attrition.

Last year, the health sector lost just over 500 nurses, and up to October 2019, the number had surpassed 460.

However, president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica Carmen Johnson has asserted that while the recruited nurses help to ease the burden on the nursing staff, there are challenges.

“I’ll put it in the words of some of those whom I’ve had meetings with – they said to me, ‘Madam President, I think we should get a three-year contract because it takes us one year to learn the language and to learn healthcare in Jamaica, and by [the time] we learn it, we only have one year to function, and then we’re gone,” Johnson said at a Gleaner Editors’ Forum at the newspaper’s North Street offices on Thursday.

The president added that even after a year, some nurses have difficulty communicating with patients who speak mainly Patois.

Johnson said that another challenge is that the nurses come to Jamaica with specialist skills and are being asked to function in general practice.

“When you take these individuals to work in your general setting, wherever you need them, it has its shortcomings,” she said.

Learning curve

Johnson said it takes the nurses a while to get to understand how they are expected to examine patients, and then come up with nursing diagnoses and plans of care to treat them.

While the nurses undergo training, for the first few months, hospitals will only have increased staff, but not added hands.

She said that in the few instances when nurses are placed in their area of specialisation, they are still not able to function fully but can assist with familiar tasks.

The latest addition to the local nursing crop was in September, when more than 130 Cuban nurses were temporarily placed in the health sector.

judana.murphy@gleanerjm.com