WRHA looking to plug nurse deficit quickly
Published:Wednesday | December 22, 2021 | 12:14 AMChristopher Thomas/Gleaner Writer
WESTERN BUREAU:
Although the Western Regional Health Authority (WRHA) has lost 10 nurses in recent months to job opportunities overseas, the organisation believes that its recruitment drive will fill the void in short order.
However, concern lingers that the health authority’s capacity might be hampered by the loss of highly experienced staff.
Dr Delroy Fray, clinical coordinator at the WRHA, said that foreign countries are consistently wooing Jamaica’s nurses because of their prowess.
“Our nurses are well sought after worldwide because they are excellently trained, so they will be attracted to other places. I have been here for 35 years, and every year we have the same thing with these recruitments, so our plan is always looking at active recruitment for replacing the nurses,” said Fray.
“... You have a lot of our doctors who are trained and want to do postgraduate studies in the United States, so they get the opportunity to go there or to other places. We anticipate what is going to happen, and we recruit in order to mitigate any shortages,” he added.
But Andrade Sinclair, director of the WRHA, is aware that the attrition of talent often forces the authority to hire less experienced staff.
“We have been losing clinicians and senior nurses, and we are replacing them as soon as they leave, because the good thing is that, we are proactive about it. The only problem we are having is that they are not senior and they need experience, so we need to up the ante where training is concerned,” said Sinclair.
Fray and Sinclair were commenting against the backdrop of a report on Sunday, December 19, the St Ann’s Bay Hospital, in the North East Regional Authority, that staff have been experiencing burnout from increased workload.
Earlier this year, Health Minister Dr Christopher Tufton revealed that more than 70 nurses from the University Hospital of the West Indies had taken job offers overseas between January and March.
The departure of highly qualified healthcare workers from Jamaica may also raise questions for the local healthcare system’s capacity to effectively deal with the highly anticipated fourth wave of COVID-19, or with the fast-spreading Omicron variant.
But when asked about the WRHA’s readiness to handle a new COVID-19 surge, Sinclair said that his team is more prepared for Omicron than when the Delta strain was first confirmed in Jamaica in August.
“... In quick stride we caught up and learned from that experience, so now we are preparing ourselves,” said Sinclair.