Region’s nurses hold annual meeting in Belize

If you’ve ever been hospitalised you know all too well the vital importance of the nursing profession. This week the organisation that represents the Caribbean’s thousands of nurses is meeting in Belize … and as I found out this morning, there’s plenty to talk about.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
In the past two years the number of Belizean nurses migrating to North America has slowed down but it continues to be a major concern not only for health professionals locally but regionally.

Cicely Dorcett, Chairperson, Regional Nursing Body
“Our nurses are leaving because of several reasons. One, poor conditions of work, they are leaving for better pay, better educational opportunities abroad and also for family reasons.”

Today, the regional nursing body held its thirty-fourth annual general meeting to discuss what more can be done to retain and recruit nurses. Strategies implemented to address the decade year old problem have had some positive results especially in Belize.

Marjorie Parks, Chief Nursing Officer, Belize
“Around 2004, the attrition was up to like eight percent; eight percent of the approximately five hundred nurses that we have. But we have noticed a declining trend, for example in 2006 it was four percent.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“What is contributing to this decline?”

Marjorie Parks
“Well we have been trying to adopt some of the regional nursing body manage migration strategy in trying to offer more employment for nurses here as well as ongoing education and the other thing is we are trying to improve the condition of service. For example we have embarked on a national nursing review in which we are going to look at salaries, condition, benefits, all those things to try and retain nurses.”

The government has also increased the number of scholarships given to nursing students under the condition that for every year of training they receive they give back an equal amount in years of service to the country.

Marjorie Parks
“So the enrolment in the University of Belize in the School of Nursing is higher, it has been improving.”

“I think the market out there is still short on a whole. It is still an international nursing shortage but it is coming to a close I think. It is almost ten years now that we going through this.”

The regional nursing body will also be reviewing the standards of education especially given by off shore schools of nursing and universities. According to R.B.N.’s chairperson Cicely Dorcett these institutions have come into the region to offer their own accreditation programme to attract students to North America but what they offer falls far short of the required four year’s Bachelor’s Degree.

Cicely Dorcett
“The institutions say they are training for export to the United Sates but our local nurses some of them are taking up these programmes and then they are having difficulty getting the visas to go to North America to do their clinicals. So then they are now asking to write the regional examination for nurse registration and they are not meeting the criteria for the minimum hours. So now to have institutions coming in doing a two year programme is defeating the purpose.”

Marjorie Parks
“And it will also decrease the quality of the nursing care because now we are trying to improve the standards of nursing. A better educated nurse will provide a higher level of nursing care.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“And we provide this through UB?”

Marjorie Parks
“Yes, that’s right. Annually we offer the Bachelor ate programme four years.”

There are no offshore nursing schools or universities in Belize.

Thirteen countries are represented at the Regional Nursing Body’s Annual General Meeting.