Thursday, March 25, 2010

NURSING IN GRENADA AND THE CARIBBEAN

Grenada is not one of the Caribbean countries that is losing large numbers of nurses to the Developed Nations of the world, Health Minister Senator Ann Peters has said.

A recent World Bank report called for collaboration to stem what it said was an exodus of qualified nurses from the English-speaking Caribbean to countries such as the United States, Canada and Britain.

However, Sen. Peters said the only nurses leaving the system in Grenada are those who have reached retirement age.

“There is no exodus,’’ she told reporters at a news conference in St. George’s. “We cannot say that we are experiencing any serious effects of migration by our nurses at this point. I don’t know if that is going to happen later down the road. But at this point that is not necessarily our reality.’’

Sen. Peters, however, admitted that the training and retention of nurses are a “burning issue’’ that requires a regional approach.

In Grenada, nursing education is handled by the Ministry of Education and Human Resource Development.

Sen. Peters, a nurse by profession, said her Ministry of Health “consumes the end product of the training programme. So, we work together.’’

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