Volunteer nurses from Nigeria, who will serve Jamaica for 2 years, have arrived on the island.
The 4 nurses join the local health team as part of efforts to address prevailing human resource challenges in the health sector.
In a statement today, the health ministry said it welcomes the volunteers, two of whom are PhD-qualified nurse educators – one specialising in community health nursing, and the other in mental health nursing.
One of the educators will be deployed to the In-Service Training and Education Unit, with discussions underway regarding a possible placement of the other at the Community Health Training Programme at the University of Technology.
The ministry said the mental health nurse educator will participate in the direct training of some 25 psychiatric registered nurses and 25 psychiatric enrolled assistant nurses per year at the In-Service Teaching and Educating Centre.
The nurse educator will also be involved in the training of another 150 nurses from other specialist areas at that same school.
The two other volunteers are specialist nurses — one a registered nurse/midwife, and the other is a RN/registered midwife/public health nurse.
The ministry said they will be assigned to other areas within the system under South East Regional Health Authority, where they will be able to precept specialist nurses in training.
Health and Wellness Minister, Dr. Christopher Tufton said the arrival of the volunteers was made possible through the Nigerian Technical Aid Corps Programme, and aligns with the World Health Organisation’s Global Strategy on Human Resources for Health, which calls on all countries to ensure equitable access to health workers, and to develop innovative, sustainable models for sharing workforce capacities.
Dr. Tufton said the global health workforce crisis – particularly the shortage of skilled nurses and frontline providers – is one of the most pressing challenges today.
He said for many countries, and, in particular, Caribbean small island developing states, as
others from the developing world, this challenge can seem overwhelming.
The minister said the nurses’ arrival is a demonstration of what is possible when countries recognise that no one nation’s health system is an island.
According to the ministry, Jamaica has a dearth of specialist nurses with shortages in areas such as midwifery emergency care, psychiatry, paediatrics, critical care, operating theatre, neonatology, oncology, orthopaedics, burn care, nephrology, wound care, cardiac care, and ophthalmology.
While the ministry is pursuing a nursing and midwifery human resources of health plan – in line with the reform of primary and secondary care, and which is intended to make more rn posts available at the entry level – the minister has encouraged RNs to pursue specialists training and has reminded of the availability of financing options such as through the Dr. Barry Wint Scholarship.
