Nurses, midwives urged to take advantage of training, other opportunities

Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony Wednesday morning encouraged nurses and midwives, to take advantage of the many training and other opportunities being offered by the government.

The minister was at the time delivering an address at the launching of the Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) programme, in the conference room of the Regency Suites Hotel in Georgetown.

He noted that a number of training programmes have been rolled out by the health over the last few years.

“We are going to offer the registered nursing programme online; we have put out a call for people who are interested to apply. We are almost close to that 1,000 that we want to start with. So, what we will have, is theory online and practical will be held at simulation centres that we are planning to build,” the health minister stated.

A specialty programme is also underway.

“We also want to train people in sub-specialty areas or specialised nurses and we are opening up new opportunities for these types of specialisations,” he added.

Nursing assistant training programmes will soon be implemented. The minister informed that consultations have already been conducted with Mount Sinai, and the training is expected to last one year.

Moreover, Minister Anthony said similar to doctors, the government is looking to send nurses for fellowship training at McMasters University, along with plans to train additional nurses and midwives as leaders and administrators at York University, both in Canada.

“For persons who are really interested in developing themselves, there would be lots and lots of opportunities. And I really want to encourage you to take advantage of all these opportunities that would be coming your way,” he emphasised.

Meanwhile, Chairperson of the Nurses and Midwives Council (NMC), Dr. Nicola Nero noted that “This life-long activity provides skills and competency necessary for maintaining a high level of education consistent with the nurses and midwives field of knowledge.”

She said the frequent seminars and training will be taken to different regions.

“Let us embrace the changes, education transformation. We need to adopt virtual reality as well as team learning. As nurses, we have shown that our profession can rise to the occasion and adapt to the patients’ changing needs,” Dr. Nero asserted.

The first training session was held on Tuesday.