Nursing programme needs urgent revamp

Jan 10, 2012 News

“We are creating weapons of destruction” -says Guyana Nurses Association

Key functionaries of the Guyana Nurses’ Association are calling for a temporary halt to the nursing programme until the necessary issues are properly addressed.
Cleopatra Barkoy, first Vice President of the Guyana Nurses Association, said that every month the association would meet to discuss pressing issues. She said that at every meeting the issue of “Nurses education” would come up but to no avail. Barkoy said that no one in authority has addressed the problem, even though they are fully aware of them.
Barkoy said what brought the issue to the floor was when newly appointed Health Minister, Dr Bheri Ramsarran, indicated his intention to start a new batch of nursing students in March. Barkoy said they are aware that they cannot take any student given the state of how nursing is at present.

From left Cleopatra Barkoy, Brian Barker and Joan Stewart

Joan Stewart, President of the Guyana Nurses Association, said that over the years the same concern of “nurse’s education” has been a pressing issue. Stewart told the media yesterday that the number of persons recruited per batch is not acceptable.
According to her, in 2007, some 90 professional nursing students were in a batch; in 2008 the number was 144 in one batch. The numbers significantly increased in 2009, when 255 professional nursing students were in a batch.
Last year Stewart said 125 professional nursing students were in a batch. To all these students a total of 11 tutors are teaching, with four of them being retired.
According to Stewart the normal tutor to student ratio in a classroom is supposed to be somewhere around one in 25 and this is certainly not what is happening. “Just imagine a classroom with 255. How can we cope like that?”
She explained that when the students are on the wards for clinical training which is mandatory, there are no instructors at times. Stewart said that the seniors are hard pressed and they need to deal with their patients plus teach. “ We have more students than patients…..and 11 tutors four of whom are retired but have to go back to teach…and this year we know that more people are going to come” Stewart said.
She added that persons in authority are not producing quality service, because students cannot learn in that environment, since there is no one to coach and counsel the nurses.
Stewart said that nurses are being blamed for everything, but these are some of the facts that have caused nursing to be at the level it is at. “We want to take nursing back and bring it to the level where we know it could be,” the president stated. More so Stewart disclosed that many non-nursing professions are making decisions for nurses without even having an iota of what nursing is about.
Persons in authority are very well aware of the situation but no one seems to have any concern over the issues, she added.
Barkoy used as reference the move by the US into Iraq, when the US went into Iraq looking for weapons of mass destruction. According to her, no need to go to Iraq; they should come to Guyana because we are creating weapons to destroy our people.
Stewart interjected that the nurses association plays no part in the selection process. She said that everything is done at the level of the Ministry of Health. The selection is done there at the Ministry of Health; the tutors don’t know who is coming and how many are coming.
She said that the tutors have been complaining, because some of the persons being brought to study nursing cannot even write a proper sentence. Stewart added that there is no selection board or even an interview before the students are selected. All that is required is an application. In the past there was a striker process before a person could be brought into nursing.
She said the nursing programme is at a saturated level and the tutors cannot cope with another batch.
Barkoy stressed that there is no person there to guide the juniors with regards to the clinical study in nursing. “They are playing with people’s lives. There are private nursing schools and if one is to examine the pass rate there against the public institutions, it would be shocking.