“This association is being challenged to identify
critical issues including factors influencing retention and motivation of our
nurses. A retention strategy is very necessary”
Comments by
newly elected President of the NAJ (Nurses Association of Jamaica), Janet Farr
on the continued exodus of Nurses from Jamaica
Jamaica is now in crisis mode as it relates to
nurses.
We're now losing them to Developed World Countries
to the point that newly-elected President of the NAJ (Nurses Association of Jamaica), Janet
Farr, has declared that the Government has to step in as noted in “NAJ
seeks gov’t intervention to curb migration of nurses”, published Monday,
March 14, 2016, The Jamaica Observer.
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Registered nurses are leaving Jamaican after
completing their training, as no retention policy exists for nurses. Without
any bonding period after training, many go abroad, where the salaries are far
more competitive to those in Jamaica.
Interestingly this is the same problem facing
teaching, as it's not just Math and Science Teachers but other subject teachers
such as English Teachers who can potentially earn higher salaries as noted in
my blog article entitled “How
JA$5 million salaries in Britain means English Teacher Exodus from Ministry of
Education”.
Nurses recently negotiated an increase to their
salaries for the contract period 2015 to 2017 “Nurses
finally sign wage agreement”, published Saturday October 31, 2015 by
Anastasia Cunningham, The Jamaica Gleaner.
But these salaries increases are very small compared
to what can be paid by countries such as England and Dubai, where English
speaking Nurses are in demand.
Now would be a good time for Prime Minister Holness
to unveil the removal of income Tax for Teachers and Nurses as promised during
his 2016 General Election Campaign as noted in the article “Holness
promising no income tax for teachers and nurses”, published Friday February
5, 2016, The Jamaica Gleaner.
Otherwise another broken promise will only serve to
accelerate the exodus.
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