The government is urging young Antiguans to consider nursing as a career, pointing to expanded local training, scholarship support and growing opportunities for specialization as part of a broader effort to strengthen the country’s health system.
Health officials said the appeal comes as Antigua and Barbuda works to rebuild its nursing workforce after years of attrition caused by migration, retirements and past workforce reductions. The government says investing in local talent is central to ensuring long-term stability and improved patient care.
During a recent media briefing, Health Minister Sir Molwyn Joseph encouraged young people to pursue nursing, describing the profession as essential to national development and public well-being. He noted that Antigua and Barbuda now has a key advantage it lacked in the past — local nurse training through the University of the West Indies (UWI) Five Islands Campus.
Officials said the UWI Five Islands Campus has already trained about 50 nurses and is expected to graduate more than 100 additional nurses over the next three years. The projections are part of a longer-term plan to improve nurse-to-patient ratios across both primary and tertiary healthcare services.
Hospital leaders and senior nursing officials said the push to attract young Antiguans is also aimed at reducing burnout among existing staff. They described current staffing levels as strained, with high nurse-to-patient ratios affecting morale and care delivery, particularly at the Sir Lester Bird Medical Centre.
Beyond basic training, the government is also promoting pathways for professional growth. Health officials outlined plans to support nurses in pursuing specialized fields such as intensive care, emergency nursing, dialysis and operating room care, including overseas training opportunities where necessary.
Authorities stressed that while short-term recruitment from abroad is being used to stabilize the system, the long-term goal is to build a self-sustaining, locally trained nursing workforce. They said encouraging young people to enter the profession is critical to reducing reliance on external staffing and ensuring continuity of care for future generations.
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Nursing is a great profession. We definitely need to do more to encourage our young people, both girls and boys to get into nursing. We should be aiming to put out a minimum of 200 to 250 nurses from our school of nursing annually. It is almost a given that we will lose between 50 to 150 nurses annually and so it is important that we have a continuous pool to call on. All that being said, we must do more in order to retain our nurses. Many leave our shores not only for better salaries but for better working conditions, greater opportunities for advancement and a more cordial and friendly working environment.
Antigua really cannot match what nurses are paid overseas or the benefits but at least try in some way to make their package attractive. It’s absolutely not attractive right now and needs urgent attention if the nursing industry is to survive for local nurses. Antigua is a very nice place to live, we are more peaceful, and sure by the grace of God of the package is revamped we can see our nurses staying. BTW I wonder what the Ghanaian nurses will be paid?
Please my PM give attention to this important topic immediately.
I would choose the one with the long braids.
Nurses need to be paid properly and given incentives to encourage them. Also, the workplace needs to provide better working conditions
How do I get the scholarship to enroll in the nursing school, am much interested but lack of finance
You become a nurse for you to be disrespected by patients,staff who don’t know they job description,the nursing director dont care about shortages mad at you for working 40 hours overtime the medical director only pops up when a family or patient complaint no support system. I would never advice anyone to become a nurse the inside treatment is horrible.
Further more the pay is not worth is cost of living is very high as soon as you get ur salary it’s gone. They rather pay Cubans, and the people from Ghana more money and they get free housing don’t pay any bills nothing and we’re working harder than them work for petty cash. Clerks have no respect for you orderly’s have no respect for nurse they all want to act like a nurse but never once attend school there’s so much disrespect in this facility you will regret becoming a nurse. People believe because they work in an institution before you they can speak to a new nurse any how. There’s no form of chain of command nothing in this place. Give them this the health care system is great compared to other islands but working there is not a good thing plus you’re working in a comfortable environment then boom the nursing director wants to shift you around nonsense
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