The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is calling for more nurses in the Caribbean and the Americas to be trained to provide skilled care.
PAHO said it is also urging that steps be taken to address what it described as inequities in nurse distribution and the problem of out-migration.
“Many countries in Latin America and the Caribbean currently face shortages of nursing personnel, presenting an obstacle to achieving the goal of universal health access and coverage for all people in the Americas,” PAHO said.
PAHO”s regional advisor on nursing and health technicians, Silvia Cassiani, said nurses are “an important human resource for health”.
He said that nursing personnel make up 60 per cent of the health workforce and cover 80 per cent of health care needs.
“We have to do much more to train more professionals, to make sure they are distributed equitably according to the needs of the population, and to retain them in their workplaces,” she urged.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), about 23 doctors, nurses and midwives are needed for every 10,000 inhabitants to provide essential health services.
In the Americas, WHO said about 70 per cent of countries have the number of personnel they need, or even more, “but they face challenges in their distribution and training”.
It said out-migration has a “major impact on nursing human resources”, and that the number of nurses from the English-speaking Caribbean who are working abroad is estimated to be three times the number of those working in the countries where they were trained.
PAHO lamented that about 42 per cent of nursing positions in the English-speaking Caribbean are vacant due to out-migration.
“Establishing mechanisms to improve workforce retention and working conditions in public health services are among the measures that can reduce out-migration of health workers.”
Source: ja observer
MORE TRAINED NURSES NEEDED IN THE CARIBBEAN—PAHO
The inability of the Caribbean region especially Grenada to properly train, educate and retain an efficient and effective medical staff has been compromised and in a chronic state for as long as l can remember.
Here is problem#1: our government here in Grenada knows it's people cannot and will never hold it accountable and responsible.
Problem #2: they create a substandard system as a showcase. They themselves don't even have faith or trust in the system they created and fund. For example, where do our ministers of parliament, prime minister, their wives and families go once they have fallen I'll...they travel to any other country for medical attention rather than put their health at the risk of those they trained and educated.
Problem #3: some of the healthcare providers do not have the interpersonal, communicative and psychological skillswhich are often reflected in their poor customer or patient interaction skills. They often show no mercy or follow the oat of the profession when attending to or rendering medical attention to patients, as is usually seen when dealing with the poor, and/or those without representation or a voice.
Problem #5: poor leadership on the part of those chosen to lead our health care system, from tom to bottom, no one is held accountable and punished when willful wrongful deaths occur.
Don't blame The Observer. The next time your PM or one of you ministers gets sick, pay attention to where they go for medical treatment. Let's be real...if our government does not trust the very own system they implemented and say they fund and lead, do you really think we would have an effective health care system?
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By: the oberver 5/30/2015 11:52:27 PM
Bro. The Observer, over the years you and i have seen thing from a different point of view but here i am in complete agreement with your comment and will go as far as to say that i could not have put it differently and i ditto everything you have said well done,Gabe is with you here.
By: gabe 5/31/2015 6:57:05 PM
This issue about the PAHO report of the shortage of nurses and to some extent Doctors in Latin Americas and the Caribbean has been an acute shortage issue from way back ,and hightlights the real political problems and care in the communities especially the poor and needy have been experiencing in certain part of the Caribbean ,and here i must mention Grenada and our current state of medical personals i.e. highly trained Nurses and Doctors ,as was in the case when our deceased bro M.Bishop was in office ,compared to what we have here in Grenada today,yes we have persons who walk around in well starch ironed nurses uniforms,(yes you can see them in the market square and in Kfc) with their uniforms then going straight back to the wards to deal with the sick,hence why i am not a bit surprised by the report by the respected PAHO as to the state of medical profession and the care offered to especially the poor and needy throughout the Caribbean and Latin Americas.
