'Exporting nurses will create jobs for others' - Association

The President of the Registered Nurses and Midwives Association, Dr Kwaku Asante Krobea, has welcomed government’s decision to export Ghanaian nurses to practice in Barbados.

According to him, sending nurses to Barbados could positively impact the country by creating job opportunities for other nurses.

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has agreed in principle to send about 375 Ghanaian nurses to Barbados to support that country’s health system which is in need of nurses.

Sharing his views on the matter in a Citi News, Dr Krobea explained that exporting nurses will create more employment opportunities for nurses who are currently at home and not employed.

He also called on the Government to make sure the local nurses to patient ratio meets the World Health Organization standards.

“If Barbados says it wants nurses at the moment, for the situation in which we find ourselves, we still could go the other way. That way we take some [of the nurses] out and they will create space [for other nurses in Ghana]…while they go, it will create a vacancy for more nurses who are sitting at home at the moment to be employed,” Dr Krobea said.

This came up when the president met with the Prime Minister of Barbados at Bridgetown last  Friday on a day’s visit to that country as part of his larger visit to the Caribbeans.

Addressing a press conference in the aftermath of the bilateral discussions, Barbadian Prime Minister, Mia Mottley said: “we have indicated that we are searching for just under 400 nurses, so it is not a small number, and we really do believe that this is a wonderful opportunity of co-operation between our two countries.”

The Ghana Registered Nurses Association has also asked the government to critically examine the nurse to patient ratio in the nation’s public hospitals.

The Association believes this will lead to a significant policy shift aimed at improving services at the nation’s hospitals.

Speaking on the Citi News, Dr. Asante Krobea said more nurses are needed to bridge the gap.

“How many nurses are taking care of citizens of Ghana who at any point in time either is taken ill and are accepting healthcare services or seeking the advice and care of midwives. We do not have enough midwives or nurses taking care of that. It will require not less than  38,000 Nurses to bridge the nurse-patient ratio gap quite considerably,” he said.

Source: citifmonline.com