BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Caribbean nursing and different well being stakeholders are assembly right here in opposition to the backdrop of a essential scarcity of nurses within the Caribbean,
Delegates attending the three-day 52nd annual basic assembly of the Regional Nursing Physique (RNB) have been advised that the shortages are among the many main issues dealing with the well being sector within the Caribbean.
The assembly ends on Thursday, and among the many agenda objects are creating an motion plan to handle the migration and mobility of well being employees within the area, a evaluation of the SOWN 2025, new developments in nursing, and the outcomes of the April 2025 sitting of the Regional Examination for Nurse Registration.
Barbados Well being and Wellness Minister, Dr. Jerome Walcott, stated that the RNB now stands at a essential crossroad.
“You aren’t solely being known as upon to maintain the beneficial properties of the previous, however to steer the transformation of the career, to form new fashions of care, and to arrange our nursing workforce to face advanced well being challenges forward, which embrace, in fact, ‘Dr. Google and the worrisome results of local weather change,” he stated.
Walcott pointed to the “troubling traits” and “rising issues” about nurse retention and known as for braveness and collaboration in charting the course forward.
“Too lots of our nurses are leaving for greener pastures, a problem that has develop into extra acute in recent times. Small creating states akin to ours can not match the salaries and profit packages supplied by the bigger, wealthier nations.
“Consequently, we face staffing shortages that enhance nurse-to-patient ratios, create longer shifts, which might result in stress and burnout in some circumstances, and in the end can compromise the standard of affected person care,” he famous.
Caribbean Group (CARICOM) Assistant Secretary-Common, Human and Social Improvement, Alison Drayton, spoke of the “essential scarcity of those indispensable well being professionals,” citing the State of the World’s Nursing Report 2025 (SOWN), which identified that one in seven nurses globally was practising exterior of the nation of their delivery.
“This dynamic poses vital challenges to the event and sustainability of well being techniques in low- and middle-income international locations like these inside our area.
“Accordingly, it’s crucial that the area considerably enhance its investments within the training, recruitment, and retention of nurses and midwives to safeguard the resilience and effectiveness of our well being workforce,” Drayton stated.
RNB chair and the Chief Nursing Officer in Grenada, Nester Edwards, additionally warned of the results if the gaps should not crammed.
“Whereas they’re among the many largest, if not the biggest, section of the workforce in our healthcare techniques, the area continues to face a perennial scarcity of nurses and midwives with excessive attrition charges and migration to extra developed international locations.
“In keeping with the SOWN 2025 report, we’re unlikely to realize the targets for common well being protection if the hole in these shortages shouldn’t be crammed,” she stated, calling for a redoubling of the efforts to search out efficient methods to recruit and retain nurses and midwives, together with these within the diaspora.
“Bettering working situations and utilising technological developments and incentives, together with versatile working hours, ought to be thought of when creating these methods,” she stated.
