The Chair of the Regional Nurses Body (RNB), Nester Edwards, Chief Nursing Officer, Grenada, has called for urgent action to address the secretive recruitment of experienced CARICOM nurses and midwives by international agencies. In her opening remarks, at the Forty-Fifth Annual General Meeting of the RNB on Monday, at the Caribbean Community Headquarters at Turkeyen, Edwards lamented the fact that “experienced nurses are leaving in large numbers,” according to a media release from CARICOM.“Chief Nursing Officers (CNOs) can testify to a certain renewed active migration taking place where international agencies are coming in a secretive manner and recruiting our personnel. We need to bring this back to the table and talk about implementing those strategies,” Nester was quoted as saying in the release, as she referred to the 2001 Migration Strategy.
According to the CARICOM statement, Minister of Public Health, Volda Lawrence, who also addressed the gathering which included representatives of Nursing Councils, universities and international development partners, underscored the urgent need for a comprehensive human resource strategy that will boost the present workforce and prioritise the improvement of nursing education in keeping with current trends and best practices in the field.