WRHA rotates nurses to cope with migration challenge
THE WESTERN Regional Health Authority (WRHA) has implemented a training rotation for nurses to get experience in different clinical areas as it continues to lose specialists to overseas employers, with at least 12 senior nurses at the Cornwall Regional Hospital (CRH) migrating in the last three months.
WRHA Clinical Coordinator Dr Delroy Fray told The Gleaner yesterday that while specialist nurses are currently needed in several key areas and such training will take time, the rotation should ensure it has enough trained personnel to fill gaps.
“You will have, for example, a nurse working in midwifery for a year and she masters that skill, so we rotate the nurse to the operating theatre. The matron would have known those who have the exposure, so when any shortage arises, you can move somebody there who would have had the experience and expertise to do so,”said Fray.
He noted that the hospital is also recruiting junior nurses.
“I want to have specialised nurses in neurosurgery, urology, and orthopaedics, and when you have that, you can run a good system very well. We have been working on that, but when you train them and they disappear on you, that is not so nice,” he added.
The latest departure of 12 senior nurses from the CRH follows the emigration of another 10 from the western region late last year.
The issue is part of a recurring phenomenon across Jamaica where medical professionals seek greener pastures overseas in the form of better salaries and working conditions. In 2018, some 500 nurses left the local nursing system, followed by another 200 up to July 2019.
One nurse, who spoke with The Gleaner, stressed that local medical workers are being driven away by current local economic conditions.
“Our pay is in no way adequate for us to survive in this economic climate. To say you have a bachelor’s degree and a security guard can go home with pay that is equal to or more than that of a licensed nurse is ridiculous,” the nurse opined. “Living from paycheque to paycheque is really not working out, hence the reason for so many of us leaving to seek better elsewhere.”
BRITAIN RECRUITS MIDWIVES
Jamaica’s public health system could also lose more workers following a recent recruitment of hundreds of midwives from several countries, including Jamaica, by Britain’s National Health Service.
WRHA Regional Director St Andrade Sinclair downplayed concerns over a potential crisis.
“You have head hunters in Jamaica, and they have been in Jamaica from as far back as 2018, and they are recruiting our clinical experts where nursing is concerned. As a result, we have to be recruiting a lot of nurses in the entire island,” said Sinclair. “... I do not know of any shortages because we are replacing them as they leave.”
Meanwhile, Fray noted that training is constantly ongoing in order to quickly fill posts should personnel depart for any reason.
“When 12 personnel leave you so quickly, it can be a problem, but we have continuous training at all times,” he admitted.
“In fact, we have training committees who look at the needs, who see where the needs are, and who will work with it. We do the same for doctors, though the emphasis is not so much on them,” he added.