Bridgetown.
There is a call for more nurses to be trained in specialty areas in Barbados.
This assertion was made by Minister of Health, John Boyce, as he addressed a Barbados Nurses Association's seminar, yesterday, at the Radisson Aquatica Resort of Barbados.
Minister Boyce said that more nurses needed to be trained in such areas as Psychiatric Nursing, Midwifery, Community Public Health and Mental Health Nursing.
He highlighted the Barbados Community College's Gerontology course which began in August last year and the Critical Care Nursing programme, scheduled to commence this September, as highly beneficial to the island.
"The need for the specialist nurse is particularly important and critical as we seek to heighten the quality of our health care services. There is [an] urgent need to tackle this shortage on two fronts.
"We need to encourage our recently retired specialist nurses to come back and do part-time assignments throughout the health service and initiate a new thrust, identifying the potential satisfaction of Professional Nursing as a career for young men and women in Barbados," he added.
The Health Minister stated that nurses continued to play a crucial role in the formulation of various policies in health care through a number of councils and commissions.
He said: "It must be noted that the participation of nurses in fulfilling responsibilities as policymakers is an essential and necessary step forward in bringing experience and best practices to strategies in regional and global health."
Mr. Boyce also challenged the nurses gathered at the seminar to continue to be professional, and urged them to use best practices as he reaffirmed his Ministry's commitment and continued support to the nurses on the island.
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