1,000 persons to be trained in nursing yearly from 2023

New healthcare facilities are being established across Guyana while existing ones will be improved and in order to adequately staff these facilities, the Ministry of Health will train 1,000 persons in the field of nursing each year.

This plan will quadruple the number of people currently trained across Guyana’s three nursing schools, Health Minister Dr. Frank Anthony said during a recent interview with the News Room.

Dr. Anthony explained that Guyana can only train 250 nurses each year based on the space available at the nursing schools in Georgetown, New Amsterdam and Linden.

To circumvent that challenge, the Ministry of Health is partnering with local and international bodies to develop a new hybrid programme that integrates online and in-person teaching.

“In January next year, we are going to launch a new registered nurses programme and we are hoping to recruit 1,000 persons interested in learning,” the Health Minister said.

He added, “Every year from now on, we would try to take in 1,000 persons.”

Through this hybrid programme, nursing students will complete their learning modules online and then engage in their practical courses at simulation centres.

Those centres, the Health Minister said, will be developed in the coming year.

Another reason why it is important to increase the number of nurses training is that these healthcare workers are among those who are actively being recruited abroad, adding to the country’s ‘brain drain.’

Many of the nurses are attracted by better salaries, though the Health Minister opined that the cost of moving abroad is often hefty.

As such, more nurses and other healthcare workers are being trained so that even if people leave, local facilities can still be adequately staffed.

Community health workers and nursing assistants are among those healthcare professionals benefitting from expanded training. In many cases, the training is being decentralised so that persons in hinterland areas no longer need to travel to Georgetown or the coast to learn.

Dr. Anthony also explained that recent salary adjustments were meant to help retain healthcare workers.

“Some would leave but I think with the increases we are offering, more people would want to stay,” the Health Minister said.