- RUDOLPH BROWN/CHIEF PHOTOGRAPHER
Edith Allwood-Anderson, president of the Nurses' Association of Jamaica, arrives for a general meeting at 72 Arnold Road, St. Andrew, last Wednesday.
"THE NURSES are burnt out and this can lead to a reduction in quality care and also cause increased nursing and medical care errors," Edith Allwood-Anderson, the Nurses Association of Jamaica president, told The Sunday Gleaner.
She disclosed that there are currently 2,000 nurses employed in the public health sector, but noted that the system would begin to cope when the number reaches 4,000-5,000.
According to NAJ president, nurses are burnt out and are put under tremendous pressure as it relates to the hours they work. She explained that if a nurse is not relieved he or she cannot come off duty until a worker in the same or higher rank arrives.
Failure to comply with this law, she emphasised, could result in serious disciplinary action.
The nursing advocate noted that the Bustamante Hospital for Children in St. Andrew was experiencing a severe shortage of nurses, pointing out that there was one registered nurse (RN) to 30 or 40 patients.
"Sometimes it is bad, they can't find an RN and it is an enrolled assistant nurse (EAN) (who has to work) and the Sister has to stay in the office and supervise the EAN and give the IV (Intravenous) medication to patients," Mrs. Allwood-Anderson reported.
"These things open the way for certain kind of things to happen that should not happen, but the RN is so swamped," she lamented.
Mrs. Allwood-Anderson said some nurses might not get more than one day off in 10 days and this is in breach of International Labour Organisation Conventions.
GOV'T TO TRAIN MORE NURSES
In response to queries from the parliamentary Opposition, Health Minister Horace Dalley recently told the Standing Finance Committee of Parliament that Government intends to train 500 additional nurses over the next three years.
But, Mrs. Allwood-Anderson said the training of nurses is long term, ranging between three-five years. She said immediate action is needed to stem the shortage of nurses.
The NAJ boss told The Sunday Gleaner that under normal circumstances, there should be one RN to 14 patients.
SWAMPED
But citing Mandeville Regional Hospital where she was a matron up to last September, Mrs. Allwood-Anderson pointed out that of a total of 25 patients on one ward where 15 were flat patients (who cannot help themselves), there was only one RN, with one ward assistant and an EAN.
According to her, that hospital is so swamped, some patients are placed in the observation ward, which was located in the accident and emergency area, for several weeks.
"In that observation ward, patients ... can't go to the ward because there is no space."
She explained that an accident and emergency setting is not geared to give total patient care. Some patients, she said, die there and do not get to any ward.
At the Spanish Town Hospital in St. Catherine, a similar situation of shortage exists
TRAUMATISING SOME NURSES
"It is easy to have 50 mothers and 50 babies and only one midwife there with one support staff."
The president said the shortage is traumatising some nurses who are not able to give the attention that some patients deserve. "It is affecting the nurses because nurses go into nursing to give care," she said.
Mrs. Allwood-Anderson told The Sunday Gleaner that nurses are still migrating in search of 'greener pastures'. The solution to the problem, she said, is for Government to properly remunerate nurses by providing low-cost houses and transportation loans, among other things. She also proposed that Government pay entry-level nurses $50,000 to $60,000 dollars after tax.
