| Although plans are apace by the Ministry of Health to put in place a Nurse Practitioners Bill by next year, the auspicious legislation in its current form does not find favour with the Guyana Nursing Council.According to Minister of Health, Dr Leslie Ramsammy, the proposed Bill is intended to ensure that continued nursing education becomes compulsory rather than an optional endeavour within the local health sector.As it is, the Bill caters not only to professional nurses but also nursing assistants, nurse aids, patient care assistants, nurses with extended roles and Community Health Workers. However, it is the view of the Council that outside of the registered nurse position, the other category of health workers should not be classified under the Bill.“These are not nurses. A nurse is a person who has completed a three-year training programme of basic nursing education and is qualified and authorised to practice nursing. The only person who can ascend to the category of a nurse practitioner is a registered nurse and not these other categories,” a council member asserted.While the proposed Bill is seen as a step in the right direction for the most part, it was revealed that the Nursing Council had met and looked at the document and had offered some suggestions for changes. The changes, according to reports, were presented to the Minister of Health for his consideration. This newspaper has been informed that a meeting with the Minister has since been requested by the Nursing Council.“We are still waiting for that meeting because we are not in full agreement with some details of that proposed Bill and believe that this must be rectified before it becomes law,” the official related.The Minister revealed recently that it was in 1997 when he was appointed Director of the Health Sector Reform Unit, he was tasked with working along with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to develop a Draft Bill to change the regulatory framework for nursing.In addition to the Bill, he said, there were plans to introduce new categories of nursing. At that time, the Minister revealed that there was only one specialist nurse category that was recognised. It was for this very reason, the Minister said that the draft bill itself was called Nurse Practitioner and Midwife Ordinance, thus emphasising that it was only the Midwife that was recognised. “So you couldn’t become a Ward Sister or eventually a Matron unless you were a Staff/Nurse Midwife.If you were trained as an anaesthetic nurse, you had to abandon anaesthetic nursing to do midwifery because if you stayed you could not be promoted.”However, the midwifery requirement has since been ruled out as a requirement factor much to the great chagrin of many of the senior nurses who dominated within the Nursing Council, the Minister disclosed.Meanwhile, as part of the efforts to promote continued nursing education at the local level,Wholesale Jerseys, he noted that nursing has moved forward with a degree programme at the University of Guyana and talks have commenced about a Masters Programme. According to the Minister, the best investment the Government can offer at this time would be to invest in the training of professional nurses.Through Health System Strengthening Programme at Global Fund, the local Health Ministry has been able to access US$2M that will go towards improving the nursing programme. “I hope we could develop a reasonable programme that will have an impact in the quality of nursing.”And the law will be required, the Minister noted, because like other health professionals, nursing must introduce a continuing nursing education as part of the annual licensing renewal process. He emphasised that continuing education must become an imperative and not simply an option.“It must be an absolute requirement for continued registration of nurses. Health and Medicine are changing every day. New techniques and new approaches are available on an almost daily basis. We cannot have an end of education after graduation. Every other professional has adopted the continuing education model for licensing, so should the nurses,” the Minister noted. |
