Gov’t Looks Abroad To Solve Nursing Shortage

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Nurses during protest 2018/file photo ANR.

With Antigua and Barbuda facing a shortage of nurses, the Government could soon amend laws to allow the country to employ foreign nurses.

The shortage of nurses is being driven by a brain drain.

Information Minister Melford Nicholas said for many years, nurses trained in Antigua and Barbuda have been drawn to Canada, the United Kingdom and United States, jurisdictions that pay far more than Antigua and Barbuda can afford.

“But there’s the other challenge, should the occasion arise where we have an absolute shortage and we do not have enough retired nurses returning to the pool; or the persons who are not being trained are not sufficient, we may have to exercise the option of bringing in nurses to cope with the losses that we ourselves sustained because people have been poaching nurses from our economy,” Nicholas said.

The Minister said there are a number of nursing students enrolled at the University of the West Indies Five Islands campus.

“The challenge is that we cannot produce a nurse out of the system in six months; it does take a while. So there are nurses who probably would graduate within the next six to eight months who will then increase the volume of nurses available,” Nicholas said.

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5 COMMENTS

  2. And when these nurses are brougt in we still have to show them the ropes example to write nurses notes setup IV give medication and with same pay this why we have to take up opportunity overseas,also working condition and benefits none for us give me a break you guys need to fix the issue

  3. Raise their pay. Nursing is a high demand career field. Well trained nurses are demanding salaries that come with their expertise, knowledge, time and money educating themselves. The uneducated ministers. Some not all are making more money than them.

  4. Govt can’t even pay the current nurses or pays them so low. What makes the dictator and his regime think it can attract nurses from abroad? The beaches? What a f’n joke.

  5. Why are there no vacancies posted by Mount St.johns Medical center or the ministry of health.Surely if there is a nursing shortage then many vacancies exist.

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