Medical community celebrates Nurses Week

Belize is joining its Caribbean counterparts to celebrate Nurses Week. The occasion is being held under the theme “Caribbean Nurses Collaborating for Excellence in Global Health.” Local officials tell News Five activities in Belize are aimed at improving and standardizing the quality of nursing care provided to patients. According to Isabel Bennett, President of the Nurses Association of Belize, service here is professional but there is always room for improvement.

Isabel Bennett, President, Nurses Association of Belize
?C.S.M.E., the Caribbean Single Market and Economy, helps us to keep the standards of nursing, helps us to improve the quality of healthcare simply because you have a standardized practice within the Caribbean and one of the things that nurses have been able to do is to have one mainstream examination for nurses which is RENR. When the nurses finish with their program, the three year program, four years now because of the bachelor program, they do a regional exam and that qualifies them to work within the Caribbean so you find that C.S.M.E. helps us to continue to keep that structure which we have, in order for the quality of care not to deteriorate.?

Alyssa Noble, Reporting
?Aside for the quality of care, do you see any kind of implications of CSME in terms of mass migration of nurses perhaps outside within the region or more nurses coming in to the local healthcare system and probably providing competition to our local nurses??

Isabel Bennett
?That a very good question really simply because C.S.M.E. pushes the nurses to further education. You need more with advanced training and as it relates to more nurses leaving Belize, that may very well be, however, the reverse may be because Belize pays more than some of the other Caribbean countries for a nurse that has a registered nurse qualification. But for the most part, C.S.M.E. will push nurses to get continued education, however, the opportunities are not there just yet. And I am sure the University of Belize will be looking into something where registered nurses can get two years in addition to their three years so that they can come out with a Bachelor?s degree.?

Nurses Week activities include interviews on the talk show circuit, a nationwide nurses t-shirt Day, a food fest and a cultural Night and a six mile walkathon in Toledo on Saturday.