Full slate of nurses

FOR THE FIRST TIME in decades, public health institutions in Barbados will have a full complement of qualified nursing staff.
Eighty-two of 114 nurses passed the October nursing examination for registration in CARICOM countries, and interviews are presently under way to have them absorbed in the health care system.
Yesterday, chief nursing officer Mitchell Clarke told the MIDWEEK NATION that based on the numbers that had passed the regional exam, there would be “sufficient qualified nurses to fill all the existing vacant posts” within the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) and the district hospitals.
However, Clarke explained that there were not many vacancies in the district hospitals. He said when the QEH went the route of board administration there were nurses who opted to remain in Government and they filled the majority of vacant posts at those institutions.
Clarke also revealed that within two to three years a situation would exist where all nurses in the local system would be Barbadians or Barbadian citizens. He said Nigerian nurses had already left the system, while there were still some from
St Vincent and the Grenadines employed. He said that in addition to being self-sufficient, the Ministry of Health was also hoping to be able to “export nurses”.