The Tribune

By LYNAIRE MUNNINGS

Tribune Staff Reporter

lmunnings@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS Nurses Union president Muriel Lightbourn said the arrival of 18 specialty Ghanaian nurses later this month won’t solve the human resources challenges in the sector.

Health and Wellness Minister Dr Michael Darville recently revealed that Ghanaian nurses will help relieve the country’s nurse shortage problem.

“18 nurses from Ghana cannot fill in for the problem we are having right now in nursing,” Ms Lightbourn said yesterday.

She said the government should do more to train nurses.

“I believe if we want to be more proactive, we have a group of nurses called trained clinical nurses, and I believe that if our government wants to be proactive, we can train these nurses further in different areas where they can fill in the gap,” she said.

“This is nothing new because I think it was either New Zealand or Australia where they would have given those trained clinical nurses or licensed practical nurses, which they are called, further training in different areas like pharmacology and other areas that can help them, you know, bring them up to the mark where you can assist management in the treatment of the client and that kind of fill in the gap for the shortage of nurses.”

“We need to work and bring things together. Nursing is clinical, nursing is practical, and so we need to train our trained clinical nurses. We need to bring them up so they can provide a more valuable contribution to nursing, and that will help with the nurses being burned out.”

The shortage of nurses has been a long-standing issue.

Last month, Public Hospitals Authority managing director Aubynette Rolle said the government expects to bring nurses from Ghana, the Philippines, and potentially India.