Efforts are continuing to boost the full-time tutoring staff of the Guyana School of Nursing by next April even as moves are being made to stock three of the nursing schools with text books, Dr Bheri Ramsaran said yesterday.
Responding to a series of opposition questions, he told the National Assembly that nursing schools countrywide are positioned for upward mobility through strategized planning.
“The Georgetown School of Nursing is being firmly positioned …to make an invaluable contribution towards the creation of the modern workforce required to deliver quality health care services in the expanding infrastructure…,” Ramsaran said.
The issue of overcrowding at the city nursing school had recently come in for much criticism by the Guyana Nurses Association (GNA), students, tutors, and the Guyana Public Service Union (GPSU) who also publicly voiced concern about the physical state of the school.
Asked about the shortage of tutors at the Georgetown School of Nursing, given that over 500 students are attending and there are only 7 full-time tutors, Ramsaran said the problem was due in part to the retiring of four nurses, but the search was on to replace them. “There were 12 full-time tutors attached to the Georgetown School of Nursing at the beginning of 2012, however four of them retired in the last five months and steps have been taken to have them replaced,” he said.
“Also, plans are on stream to incrementally increase the full-time tutors by employing an additional 10 within the next six months. In addition, there are 14 part-time tutors complementing the full-time tutors. Six clinical instructors are also used to perform some of the duties of tutors,” he added.
Ramsaran said reports of there being no clinical instructors at the institution are erroneous. “A total of 29 clinical instructors received basic training and are providing clinical guidance and tutorial support,” he stated.
He said too that during this month, clinical instructor courses are being conducted at the two of the government schools of nursing where currently such training is absent. A total of 30 instructors will be trained. The target population will be nurses and other allied health professionals in all of the clinical settings that students are assigned to. In addition a special clinical instructor’s course will be held for public health staff from regions 3 and 4.
MP Valerie Garrido-Lowe questioned the shortage of “up to date” test books, providing a list of 12, and wanted to know when the school will be stocked with an adequate amount. She queried plans to provide a larger library to the facility.
Ramsaran said that while the ministry encourages its students to make use of other library facilities, such as the virtual one at the GPHC, plans are on stream to purchase 35 additional texts to add to the 300 in the school’s library. “The ministry is constantly expanding its stock of textbooks in all three of the schools of nursing. Older versions are currently being replaced incrementally based on available resources. Additional volumes of the required texts will be bought during the remainder of this financial year and next year,” he stated.
“A perusal of recent editions of the standard texts used at the schools will show that there have been little or no changes to content…. It is the approach to teaching content that has seen continuous change… The ministry is positioning itself to shift more and more to virtual libraries and will continue to encourage students in this direction,” he explained.
Contrary to Garrido-Lowe’s question which stated that there were only five computers at the Georgetown Nursing School, the minister said there were 13. However, plans are in place to soon increase that amount to 21, which will be internet ready, making using of the virtual library an easy task. He informed that next year’s budget proposes increases of computers at all nursing schools.
