NURSE migration was addressed at a workshop yesterday where the stakeholders were exhorted to agree on specific actions, based on the findings and retention strategies outlined in a recently completed study. Country Representative of Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO), Dr. Kathleen Israel, whose agency partnered in hosting the forum, warned that, if that did not happen, the document, will become, like so many other research results, something that is shelved somewhere.

Speaking at Cara Lodge, on Quamina Street, in Georgetown, she urged the participants to work very hard to identify what must be done to deal with the issue.

The programme was facilitated by PAHO consultant, Dr. Una Reid who was also responsible for undertaking the survey that looked at the period 1997 to 2010 and sought to ascertain reasons for nurses leaving Guyana.

Those participating in the exercise were from all the Administrative Regions, except Region One (Barima/Waini) and they covered out migration, internal migration and return migration.

Of a workforce of 490, approximately 200 nurses were involved in the work that showed the push factors included not only pay as most would expect but positive practice results, conditions of service and source countries and raised issues of professional recognition, management practices, support structures, education, occupational health and safety, welfare, opportunity for further professional and personal development, shift differential remuneration, benefits and job promotion process, workload, equipment and supplies, physical facilities, among others.

Israel lauded the month of landmark work done by Reid and said actions taken based on it will have implications for the whole health sector but, moreso, for the nurses.

“The issue of nurse migration is one that has been challenging countries in the Caribbean and the developed world for some time,” the diplomat said, acklnowledging that it is not a new phenomenon.

However, she decried the actions of the developed world in contributing to the problem.

“What is unusual, in recent times, is the deliberate poaching by the developed countries of the nurse complement. This has opened up a new opportunity for migration in numbers that were unprecedented,” Israel said.

Background
Against that background, Israel said efforts had to be taken by the Caribbean to retain its human resources and one, by CARICOM, at a Council for Human and Social Development (COSOD) meeting.

There, the concept of managed migration was discussed but because of the complexities that came with the initiative, it never saw the light of day, she revealed.

Israel said: “Countries were left, individual countries, with the challenge of determining what are the best strategies to retain nurses.”

She said, in Guyana, contrary to what some may think, salary was not the primary reason for nurse migration and called that one of many false arguments.

“One aspect is that we cannot compete with the developed countries and so we should not bother to try and identify retention strategies,” Israel said.

Accepting that situation, she said, would be saying that nurses have no sense of patriotism which would make them want to stay.

“It is not every nurse who would want to go and there are some who would not have gone if the strategies had been in place,” Israel maintained.

She said another false argument is the notion that, if training programmes and education opportunities are watered down, the nurses would not be empowered to leave.

Positing that it would be counterproductive, Israel said, if that were done, the level of health care being delivered to the local people would be negatively impacted.

“We must look at the strategies in a generic sense and in a tailored way, to suit the needs of Guyana. Being cognisant of your own environment and what is possible in that environment, as well as the need of nurses, is what we have to look at,” she suggested.

Israel added that, while negotiations with partners on the retention strategies will be conducted, there are things that can be done, by nurses themselves, to better their profession without the intervention on any other party.

In conclusion, she said that the end product of the workshop must be usable, relevant, comprehensive enough and based on the realities of the study’s findings.

“It can also be a model for other countries in the Caribbean as they too grapple with the issue of nurse migration,” Israel said.