200 more being trained for nursing profession
Guyana Chronicle
February 14, 2007
TWO hundred more recruits will soon begin the Professional and Nursing Assistants Training Programme to aid quality delivery in Guyana’s modernised health sector, the Government Information Agency (GINA) said yesterday.
The group gathered at the Ocean View Convention Centre, Liliendaal, East Coast Demerara, for a brief induction ceremony on Monday.
The batch will be trained over two and three years in the respective courses after which successful trainees would serve five years individually at institutions to which they are assigned, GINA said.
According to the agency, they will be assessed on theoretical and clinical performances, too, with the nursing assistants focusing on 12 subject areas, including medicine, surgery and psychiatry.
Delivering the charge to the new inductees, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health, Mr. Hydar Ally noted that they were selected from among some 1,000 applicants, many of whom have surpassed the required criteria.
He said their impressive performances at the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) and General Certificate of Education (GCE) tests were encouraging enough to determine their success with the programme.
Ally referred to the high migration rate of Guyanese nurses and challenged the new entrants to show patriotism and live up to expectations by serving the five-year contract after training.
He admonished them to demonstrate a positive attitude to the profession because they will be at the centre of patient care and the government’s plan to modernise the health sector.
GINA said the 2007 programme will encompass a component on Information Technology (IT) being introduced for the first time.
This element of the process, it said, will be provided through the recently established Virtual Library at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Institutional strengthening, which started last year, will be a major focus this year, with the establishment of new hospitals at Linden, Mabaruma, Lethem and an in-patient unit at the GPHC, GINA said.
Additionally, the agency said, there will be four diagnostic and treatment centres and a state-of-the-art eye care clinic in Berbice.
Training options are also provided in midwifery, paediatrics, mental health and other specialised fields, among them a degree in nursing at the University of Guyana, GINA stated.
The nursing programme had its genesis in 1905 when midwifery was introduced and training for professional nurses followed.
The Georgetown School of Nursing, the first training facility, was established in 1945, ahead of two other facilities in Regions Six (East Berbice/Corentyne) and 10 (Upper Demerara/Berbice).