Positive moves on nurses’ concerns

The Barbados Nurses Association (BNA) has reported making significant strides in addressing a number of longstanding issues including outstanding appointments and sporadic payments that have been plaguing the profession.

During a wide ranging press conference on Thursday afternoon, BNA President Joannah Waterman expressed satisfaction that the appointments due to over 200 healthcare workers are now receiving the full attention of the Ministry of the Civil Service after an intervention from Prime Minister Mia Mottley.

However, there has been no definitive word about when the longstanding appointments will take effect.

“What we have been told now is that a directive has been given by the Prime Minister herself to the civil service to follow through and make sure that all nurses who have been in the system for three years and over be appointed according to the Public Service Act,” Waterman revealed.

“Of course the minister has indicated that that process will take some time, but the Prime Minister has given that directive to the civil service, and so we are looking forward to our nurses having security of tenure and therefore an improvement of their working conditions,” she added.

Numerous senior managers including principal nursing officers and senior nursing officers received appointments last year, but staff level nurses had been left in the dark for some time.

As they waited on word about appointments, some nurses, particularly in geriatrics and psychiatry were forced to work as many as six months without pay and unable to make ends meet. The issues were said to arise when the temporary nurses fell off of government’s SmartStream payment software.

During last week’s meeting with the Minister of Health and Wellness Jeffrey Bostic, the BNA was given the assurance that after two years of pleading through the Congress of Trade Unions and Staff Associations of Barbados (CTUSAB), payment issues would now be directly dealt with by his permanent secretary.

“We were informed that a directive has been given to the permanent secretary to assume the responsibility for ensuring that it does not remain a problem and when temporary nurses fall off of the SmartStream, that is to be taken up by the permanent secretary so that those persons could be paid with expediency,” Waterman added.

The BNA in the meantime will be turning its attention to other decades-old issues including much needed adjustments to the Z scale payment system that would reflect additional training for registered nurses who are now required to complete the Bachelor’s degree programme offered at the Barbados Community College (BCC).

Waterman noted that in some cases, upper level nursing assistants were being paid more money than registered nurses. She recalled that a proposal to adjust the discrepancies was submitted to the Ministry of the Civil Service, but was rejected for “frivolous reasons”. She is however heartened at support for the adjustments from the Ministry of Health.

“We have submitted a paper that speaks to the rationale as to why it needs to be adjusted and we have added in the context of the fact that when it is compared to the Z scale pay grade for upper level nursing assistants is at the higher level than beginner registered nurses, which makes absolutely no sense.

“We love our nursing assistants and we work as a team, but [for] the supervisor and the person who has the legal responsibility for delivery of patient care who has to do four years for a bachelor’s degree and a wide scope of practice it is not acceptable,” she added.

During the hour-long press briefing, the BNA president welcomed the contingent of 95 nurses from the Republic of Ghana, but again stressed that their presence only addressed 17 per cent of the over 660 nurse deficit plaguing the public sector.

While noting that the most recent contingent of nursing students recorded a 62 per cent pass rate in the regional exams, she urged Government to recruit more nurses from overseas in the short-term, while setting sights on a Barbados-based regional nursing school to train healthcare professionals in the long-term.