NAJ renews urgent call for advanced practice nursing law
Published:Monday | July 24, 2023 | 12:08 AMAinsworth Morris/Staff Reporter
As the curtain came down on Nurses Week on the weekend, Patsy Edwards-Henry, president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ), renewed a call for advanced practice nursing legislation, more than 40 years in the making, to be taken through the nation’s Parliament
“We want to have that passed!” Edwards Henry told The Gleaner last week during the NAJ’s Founders’ Day celebration at the Summit Lifestyle and Business Campus in St Andrew.
“Each time we are updated, we’re told it’s advanced. We need it now to be completed and passed,” she reiterated.
In 2019, Saidie Williams-Allen, the then acting deputy chief nursing officer in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, told nurses at the Nurse Practitioners 66th National Seminar at the Royalton White Sands in Trelawny, that the legislative framework for nurse practitioners to practise in Jamaica was far advanced.
Nurse practitioners are advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) who work independently and who serve as primary care providers to mitigate the effects of physician shortages in underserved areas. They are trained to assess patient needs, interpret diagnostic and laboratory tests, diagnose illness and disease, prescribe medication, and formulate treatment plans.
In addition to advanced nursing practice legislation, Edwards-Henry also had other concerns to raise with the authorities, such as the compensation review for nurses.
“It seems to be going a little bit slow, but we are working with the Government and hopefully, by 2024, we will be able to say that we’re happy with the package that we’ve received from the Government,” Edwards-Henry told The Gleaner.
“Moving in the future, one of the things that I’ve asked for, and I’m hoping it will come through in this year, is nurses as a uniformed group, we [should] also be recognised on Heroes Day for long service award. So we’ve submitted the names, and I’m hoping that most of the names will be called. We are just asking for recognition for our work and worth. We’re not asking for a lot. We’re going through the compensation review,” she said.
Nurse shortage
Edwards-Henry also said that, with the nursing profession in Jamaica continuing to have challenges with a shortage of personnel, and nurses being high in demand globally, there is continued pressure on Jamaica’s healthcare sector when they accept jobs overseas.
“We are the largest professional group in healthcare, but we are short, and the International Council of Nurses says that by 2030 we will be 12 million nurses worldwide, so nursing shortage remains a challenge. We also have a resource problem; and while the Government tries as much as possible, we don’t have enough of what we need to use,” Edwards-Henry told The Gleaner.
“One of the biggest [concerns] for us now, though, is the fact that a lot of people who are not nurses want to speak on nursing issues, so we are charging the Government to put nurses in administrative positions, in executive roles, in policymaking ... positions, because we are the ones who want to speak for, and on behalf of, nurses,” she said.