As nurses settle into new salaries, gov’t shifts focus to mass training, specialisation

Hundreds of nurses across Guyana have joined colleagues from around the world in the noble profession to celebrate Nurse’s Week which runs from May 06 to May 12.

The government has used the occasion to outline its plans for improving the profession of nurses, a major component of which includes a mass training programme and the specialisation of more nurses.

Already, the government has responded to the recurring request for an increase in salaries which was offered at the beginning of the year.

Among those benefitting from the increases were Nurse Aides and Patient Care Assistants, Nursing Assistants, Midwives, Staff Nurses and Staff Nurses/Midwives.

The increase will now see registered nurses with starting salaries of $170, 000 monthly.

The government has promised more salary increases in the future and according to Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony, a new programme will be launched soon which will see 3, 000 nurses trained in the next three years.

Starting this year, the government is looking to address the challenge of nurse shortages across the country by training 1, 000 persons in nursing; this will continue until 2025 by which time some 3, 000 persons will be trained.

The government is also training hundreds of nursing assistants with plans afoot to reduce an 18-month curriculum to one year. Dr. Anthony said a team from Mount Sinai is reviewing the curriculum and hopefully they will be able to reduce it from 18 to 12 months.

“This will make a big impact and more people will be trained in the assistant nursing programme,” Dr. Anthony told the News Room during an interview on Tuesday.

Beyond that, at a higher level, the government is developing and training nurses in several specialised fields.

It accompanies the construction of specialised health facilities including a paediatric and maternal hospital at Ogle, East Coast Demerara.

“This will require nurses to be trained in specific areas and we are working with nurses to get this training,” Dr. Anthony told the News Room.

And to support this, the government is working with a World Health Organisation (WHO) collaborating centre in Brazil where local nursing in leadership positions are pursing Masters and PhDs.

Some nurses have been sent to Canada and the United States of America.

“These are all opportunities to train more people and get them better equipped to deal with specialised nursing,” Dr. Anthony added.