1000 nurses to receive online registered nursing training annually – Health Minister

Feb 06, 2023 News

Kaieteur News – The Government of Guyana will soon be rolling out an online registered nursing programme to fill the void which currently exists in the country’s public health system, Minister of Health Dr. Frank Anthony said Thursday.

Health Minister, Dr. Frank Anthony

“This is a three- year programme and every year, we are hoping to attract a thousand persons into that programme,” he said.

Through this hybrid programme, nursing students will complete their learning modules online and then engage in their practical courses at simulation centres. Those centres, the Health Minister said, will be developed in the coming year.

Dr. Anthony said with the expansion of the country’s health sector and with new hospitals coming on stream, there is need to have adequate human resource and therefore the government will be working to ensure that every faculty in the profession is equipped.

“So over time, we will be able to get the relevant human resource that we need to operate the system.  We are also training people in pharmacy, pharmacy aid and there are a lot of other programmes that we are working on simultaneously. We have decentralized some of these programmes, so that we can get people from the respective regions to be trained,” the Minister said.

Dr. Anthony explained that Guyana can only train 250 nurses each year based on the space available at the nursing schools in Georgetown, New Amsterdam and Linden.

However, with new healthcare facilities being established across Guyana and upgrades expected for existing ones there is need for sufficiently trained staff to meet the country’s demand. As a result, 1000 persons will be trained annually in the nursing programme.

The Ministry of Health is partnering with local and international bodies to develop a new hybrid programme that integrates online and in-person teaching.

He added, “Every year from now on, we would try to take in 1,000 persons” while pointing to the challenge of brain drain, where many of the country’s healthcare workers have migrated to North American and Europe in search of greener pastures.

Community Health Workers and Nursing Assistants are among healthcare professionals benefitting from continuous training. In many cases, the training is being decentralised so that persons in residing in hinterland communities no longer need to travel to Georgetown to receive training.

Additionally, Dr. Anthony said that with government’s adjustment to salary scales for health care professionals, he believes that the issue of brain drain will be curtailed significantly.

“Some would leave but I think with the increases we are offering, more people would want to stay,” the Health Minister said.

• Health Minister, r. Frank Anthony, This is a three- year programme and every year