Do better for nurses in 2020, says BNA head

Nurses are challenging the Government to urgently address a number of “untenable” situations plaguing the profession, as they insist that the healthcare workers must be a priority in 2020.

According to Barbados Nurses Association (BNA) President Joannah Waterman too many nurses are still working without pay, others are seemingly waiting in vain to get appointed, and healthcare centres remain understaffed. Meanwhile, she complained, increasing cases of non-communicable diseases among Barbadians have required an even greater effort from the profession.

“Nurses are working but not getting paid, in violation of the ILO [International Labour Organization]’s Convention 100, and, of course that is something that is totally untenable as we have said over and over again,” Waterman told Barbados TODAY.

Expressing some satisfaction with recent assurances from Prime Minister Mia Mottley that she would personally address the matter, Waterman urged the Government to examine the situation “very carefully and closely”, even suggesting that a law be passed to prevent such injustices from reoccurring.

The year 2020 is expected to be a momentous year for healthcare workers globally and has been designated Year of the Nurse and the Midwife by the World Health Organization (WHO). According to the BNA president, the local association is also on board with the Nurses Now campaign established by the International Council of Nurses and the WHO to lift the profession’s profile.

“The fundamental thrust behind this is to urge the Government to see the importance of nursing in relation to the delivery of healthcare, maintaining and achieving the sustainable development goals as well as universal health coverage,” she added.

Meanwhile, the BNA is eagerly anticipating the arrival of 120 nurses from Ghana, with Waterman noting that the current stock of approximately 480 is not enough and “many more” nurses would be needed in the long term to address the current deficiencies.

She further told Barbados TODAY that the failure of successive governments to adjust the profession’s establishment quotas for decades has resulted in nurses operating with staffing ratios as high as 20 patients to one nurse, which is way below internationally accepted standards.

“The international ratios require a 1:7 ratio in routine areas, 1:1 in intensive areas, and 1:2 in high dependency areas. But with our deficit in nursing personnel resources, we have had as high as 1:17, 1:18, and cases in geriatric nursing where it has been one nurse to 20 and 22 patients. So we need to have those areas corrected and we are very pleased that the Government has listened to our cries and they are now bringing on the recruitment drive from our African countries, Ghana in particular,” Waterman said.

She added that the BNA had proposed the creation of new establishment quotas, which are critical to improvements in healthcare delivery and the delivery of “safe care”.

Waterman also expressed concern about the number of patients being diagnosed with multiple non-communicable diseases, which now require a higher level of administration and care routines than single cases.

“Whereas before we may have had patients coming in with a single condition, we now have comorbidities where patients are coming in with several conditions including diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease at the same time, and that requires a higher level of administration of care than the routine single cases,” she said.

While nurses have been asked to shoulder the increased burdens, many of the longstanding workers are still awaiting appointments after almost 20 years in some cases, the BNA official lamented.

“We now have been given assurances and told appointments have been made to up to 200 nurses, so we look forward to that,” she added hopefully.

Waterman has also expressed confidence that, in the new year, pass rates for students in the Barbados Community College’s Bachelor Degree Nursing programme would continue to trend upward, as the BNA attempts to raise a cadre of young nurse leaders.
kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb