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Improving nursing care high on Health Ministry’s agenda
– Hydar Ally
A shift system which has been incorporated by the Ministry of Health’s nursing schools have been working well as it has served to put less stress on the delivery of lectures, according to Permanent Secretary, Hydar Ally. According to Ally, during an interview with this newspaper, this measure has also been instrumental in creating more space for the accommodation of students. The Ministry of Health at its recent intake of nursing students accepted a record number of applications amounting to close to 600, an undertaking that has not been known to occur previously. “We will not have the kind of congestions that we had…even though we feel that we can do better with some additional space which we are trying to address with the expansion of the Georgetown School of Nursing.”
Additionally, Ally revealed that the Ministry has been able to some extent address the problem of tutors’ availability at the nursing schools, adding that, “we are seeking more help from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, which has tremendous faculty at their disposal to help us to meet the teaching needs.”
Health Ministry Permanent Secretary, Hydar Ally
Public advertisements have also played a major role in soliciting additional tutors, Ally revealed, adding that through this means, part-time as well as full-time lecturers have been brought on board. “In a sense we have been able to address the problem somewhat even though we would like to have more full-time people on the programme. For various reasons we are not getting the kind of responses we would like.”
Meanwhile, the Permanent Secretary revealed that the Public Health Sector continues to battle with the problem of nurses’ migration, a problem he believes transcends across most, if not all territories. Migration, according to Ally, is a challenge that the Ministry must continue to address. ‘We are trying to do what we can within the limitation of our own resources such as by addressing issues like increasing salaries to make it more comparable to what is being offered in the Caribbean or elsewhere….but we have to look at the situation contextually, given our economy or Gross Domestic Product and our ability to pay…”
In the meantime though, Ally noted that the Ministry has engaged plans to intensify the training of nurses in order to make allowance for attrition which he believes is inevitable in any part of the world. According to him, if the trend of migration is examined closely the world over, there is evidence enough to prove that nurses tend to drift to where conditions are better. And this, he said, is even noticeable in some of the more developed countries. “I think the problem probably really needs to be addressed at a higher level…maybe we have to put measures in place to make it difficult for people to recruit nurses…what we call pirating.”
At the moment there is no measure in place that can prevent a nurse from migrating or joining the Private Sector after his/her contract has expired, Ally noted. “This is not a problem unique to Guyana, it is a phenomenon I would say of both regional and international proportion as well.” However, the local Health Sector is hoping to address this problem, even though in a minimal way, by upgrading the conditions of work for nurses, Ally said. This, he said, includes the expansion and improvement of existing health facilities.
Consideration has also been given to the workload that nurses are made to carry, hence the move to train more, Ally noted. “We provide for those students who come from the interior during training; we provide them with accommodation and we give them a stipend of about $16,000 a month and uniforms. This is more than what teachers in training are in receipt of.”
In a sense, we have been trying to do whatever we can, given the limitation of our own resources to make the profession a little bit more attractive.”
Meanwhile, Ally signalled his concern about the attitude of some nurses in the system, revealing that efforts are being made to offer customer care tutoring to help improve nurse/patient relations.
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