Gov’t to Address Specialty Nursing Shortage

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – The Davis administration is looking at ways to ‘sweeten the pot’ for nurses in hopes of keeping them here, according to Health and Wellness Minister Dr. Michael Darville who says the government is hoping to bring on around 70 nurses soon.

Berthony McDermott reports.

As the public healthcare system continues to battle a nursing shortage, Health and Wellness Minister Dr. Michael Darville says government is looking to bring on around 70 nurses that are expected to take final exams in May.

Upon taking office, Dr. Darville said there was a nursing shortage of 140 specialty nurses.
Since then, he said 31 nurses were brought on from the University of The Bahamas.

But as the public healthcare system is constantly used by other countries to shop for nurses, the health minister says government is looking at ways to sweeten the pot.

The Health and Wellness Minister added, government is in talks with The Bahamas Nurses Union.

But one think is for sure, he said if nothing is done, the end result won’t be good for the country.

His comments came on the sidelines of a the launch of a training session for 50 patient care assistants.

He said the first part of the training is soft and attitude transformational skills.