Nurses quit for high US salaries

Health Minister Dr Duane Sands.

As of Friday, October 13, 2017

By AVA TURNQUEST

and NATARIO MCKENZIE

Tribune Staff Reporters

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

AMERICAN recruiters are poaching Bahamian nurses from the country’s cash-strapped public healthcare system, according to Health Minister Dr Duane Sands, who said 70 nurses have left this month.

Dr Sands told The Tribune the worsening phenomenon has been magnified by existing shortages in the Bahamas health score, underscoring that some 400 more nurses are needed.

Recruiters from the United States are offering Bahamian nurses a green card, better wages and far more attractive incentives than those being offered locally, he explained.

“We have to keep it real and let the Bahamian people know what the issues are. There has to be transparency,” said Dr Sands.

He continued: “This has been a longstanding problem but it has gotten significantly worse and that is what happens when you take your eye off the ball. I have conducted a special review of the circumstances of nurses in the country.

“This is a special priority for me,” Dr Sands added, noting additional resources may need to be directed towards retaining nurses in the country.

“We have many Filipino and Africana nurses in our clinics because many of our Bahamian nurses are now working in South Florida. We have to make the necessary decisions to deal with this issue. If we don’t there may be very few nurses left and for safety reasons we will have to shut down services because you cannot have unskilled labour.

“We have lost many nurses out of the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) for instance because they have marketable skills and we can’t pay them what they are worth,” said Dr Sands.

Dr Sands noted that with the starting salary for nurses at just over $20,000 a year, US recruiters are able to offer far more attractive salaries and benefits.

“We are 400 nurses short right now across our health care system in terms of what is safe and optimal. There is also a shortage in North America and they can’t train nurses fast enough but there they have money,” he continued.

“They come down have a nice session at the Hilton say to these young ladies primarily, many who are single and say, ‘Look, we can give you a Green Card right now and a better salary.’ When you as a nurse cannot afford a car or a home and you are supposed to be considered a professional and someone says to you tomorrow, we will do this for you, we will give you a Green Card, you will have access to $50,000 to $60,000 a year plus training what would you do? They are quite happy to accept the offer and move to Hialeah or West Palm Beach” said Dr Sands.

The Bahamas is by no means the only country in the world wrestling with a nursing shortage.

A World Bank Report in 2010 noted the region is facing a rapidly growing shortage of nurses “as demand for quality health care increases due to an aging population, and high numbers of nurses emigrate, drawn by higher paying jobs in Canada, the UK and the USA.

BahamasForBahamians 6 years, 7 months ago

Dr. Sands this is not a phenom.

It is called globalization. It is the direction the entire world is headed.

Instead of complaining your government should ensure the Bahamian populace is adequately trained and prepared to deal with globalization!

OMG 6 years, 7 months ago

You conveniently forget that the last incompetent government wasted all the money and borrowed even more so just where are the funds to retain these nurses to come from.

BahamasForBahamians 6 years, 7 months ago

Didn't vote these guys in to hear about the last government. They knew exactly what the deal was before getting in, they said it on every campaign stage leading up to the election.

They Knew what it was and still made hell a promises. We need them to honor the promises they made, when they knew the country was cash-strapped!

If finding a solution is becoming overwhelming, and they can only play the blame game, they need to resign forthwith!

Your statement is equivalent to throwing in the towel on finding a solution and just pointing a finger.

OMG 6 years, 7 months ago

Sorry but most solutions require cash and the question still is where does that cash come from in an almost bankrupt economy. Face facts and we are always told learn from history but it seems borrowing has always been the solution. The obvious solution is to dramatically increase nursing salaries,working conditions ,hours and easy access to further training but I say again how will this be paid for? That is not throwing in the towel but facing a very difficult situation .

DEDDIE 6 years, 7 months ago

What the Bahamas don't realized is that we are losing people in every industry. We are competing for skill immigrants but our head is still in the sand.

BahamasForBahamians 6 years, 7 months ago

Its called globalization!

We must prepare to complete globally, not only with other Bahamians!

DEDDIE 6 years, 7 months ago

The name you use isn't synonymous with what you write.

BahamasForBahamians 6 years, 7 months ago

It actually fits perfectly with my screen name.

If Bahamians are better prepared for a globalized world, it improves the efficiency at home as well. Only then, would we not feel threatened by a foreign executive or firm.. who we would now be able to compete with for a job (if we are globally prepared).

tell_it_like_it_is 6 years, 7 months ago

Hold on, forget about globalization... didn't those same nurses say how they were not being paid for months (even the measly salary there were entitled to).. and you surprised they left? You can't be serious!
Government does this too much! So many long time civil servants owed back pay. Persons not getting pension on time. Wages not being regularized. I mean some folks wait for years to get the right salary. Y'all need to get this right... [And dey act like dis normal!]

OMG 6 years, 7 months ago

How about this for stupidity from the PLP. Fired two foreign nurses from Eleuthera who wanted to stay, even better did not renew the contract of a long serving foreign doctor who wanted to stay. Consequently no permanent doctor in Central Eleuthera for over 2 years. Only just have a permanent doctor who I am told is worked off her feet.

BahamasForBahamians 6 years, 7 months ago

5 months into the FNM term and its the PLP's fault.

Are you saying the FNM has been unable to hire two critical staff in five months?

If thats what you're saying - What does that say to the present administration if they have not been able to conduct interviews and hire 2 people since the election? Is Eleuthera a priority to the administration we elected for answers?

We're not buying the excuse of lack of money since people are continously fired and while more moneys are being borrowed. This means there is new room on the payroll and new money (Hubert and Peter borrowed 722million then another 250million)

WE are not living in the past.

Remember they were voted in for solutions, not a constant reminder of the past administration.

OMG 6 years, 7 months ago

Read the article "shortage of trained nurses". Firings and retirement do not equal all the hirings just before the. last election. At the end of the day any government has only so much money to distribute . Granted do not live in the past but learn from it.

TheMadHatter 6 years, 7 months ago

Right. It's not the low salary - it's the NO salary.

Remember a couple years back when the nursing students graduated and then they could no longer get their free lunch meal at PMH because "...they were no longer students." Yet, they were not being paid at all "...because they had not been entered into the payroll system yet." They couldnt even buy lunch.

This went on for months.

Was Duane Sands living in Australia then?

How soon we forget. This was under Ingraham around about 2009.

We treat our own people like dogs.

If they were foreign nurses brought here for a quick intro program and then completed...you can bet your a $$ they would have gotten their lunch.

But if you are a Bahamian you either eat dirt and table scraps or if you make noise you get sent to the Homosexual Rape Center on Fox Hill Road. By the way, how is it the BCC has never heard if this place?

That manager gal from BPL didnt eat no table scraps. $30g per month. Wow. She mussy didnt borned here.

Well_mudda_take_sic 6 years, 7 months ago

Too many posting comments here are blind to the much bigger picture. What's going on here is all a part of the hideously deliberate destabilization of our economy by the IMF, IDB et al. These international lending agencies represent powerful corporate interests in the developed countries like the the U.S. They get our politicians hooked on unsustainable debt that does not allow for Bahamians, like nurses, to be paid fair compensation for their services and qualifications. The IMF, IDB et al. provide loans and other financial assistance to assist us with the training of nurses and other medical personnel so that the developed countries, like the U.S., can then swoop in and poach these same individuals once they have been trained on our dime - we get stuck with the loans, they get the trained talent funds by their loans to us! It's all part of the surreptitiously carried out hideous agenda of the IMF, IDB et al. to take from "us" on the cheap and give to their corporate backers/lobbyists vital resources needed by the developed countries. Trust me, Uncle Sam could not care less about the healthcare needs of Bahamians today or tomorrow. Just look at how Uncle Sam is willing to treat Puerto Ricans after two devastating hurricanes hit Puerto Rico....and they are U.S. citizens living in a U.S. territory! The only way of stopping this nightmarish situation is for our government to stop taking everything the IMF, IDB et al. says as gospel, stop the borrowing (no matter the pain), right-size our bloated public sector work force, tighten the belt everywhere else possible, and focus on the creation of well-paying private sector jobs while devoting the necessary resources to the education and training of Bahamians to fill those jobs. The fire we are currently engulfed in must be fought on all fronts!

The_Oracle 6 years, 7 months ago

The brain (and talent) drain has been ongoing since the 50's. It is just accelerating as the hand writing is on the wall: we are past V1,V2, no headway with a wall at the end of the runway!

DEDDIE 6 years, 7 months ago

The Bahamas still has the ability to attract second and third tier talent. As we continue to regress as a country it will become more difficult. Immigration is what keeping the so call first world countries buoyant. Canada and the United Sates have recognized that their generational citizenry can no longer cut it and is therefore providing lucrative incentive for highly educated immigrants. We need to do the seem to halt our regression.

BONEFISH 6 years, 7 months ago

Bahamians continue to ignore the fact that is a massive brain drain away from this country.This has been ongoing for years

sheeprunner12 6 years, 7 months ago

The public service must change its approach to attracting Bahamian professionals to offer their skills .......... But the glass ceilings that exist make it counter-productive to do so.......... And more strategic planning and use of existing HR can go a long way right now.

Socrates 6 years, 7 months ago

sorry for our country but glad that skilled bahamians are realizing that the Bahamas is not the world and you need to take responsibility for your own future and not wait/hope/rely on government to be your saviour...

ashley14 6 years, 7 months ago

Bologna! We don't have a nurse shortage. They may come here for a better job. Better working conditions, wages, choices. I'm sure they could get a green card. From what I've seen in the news paper, I wouldn't want to get sick the Bahamas. I would fly into Florida. I'm sure there are good doctors and nurses in the Bahamas, but the facilities are lacking. Patients in the hall or rooms that look more lack a storage room. The air condition is poor condition or so I've read. The Florida nursing home that lost power in one of the last hurricanes lost about 15 patients, solely due to the heat.

johnmcntsh 6 years, 7 months ago

If the Bahamas only pays new nurses $20,000.00 a year you are going to lose most of them. Aft

sheeprunner12 6 years, 7 months ago

Agreed ........... these are professionals who go through a rigorous 3-4 year college programme to get certified ........ and to make 20K is disappointing ..... trained teachers start with 25K ........ lawyers with 30K ........ doctors with about the same ........ no wonder that they put in the 3 year minimum contract and move on to greener pastures ....... Teachers need their own Commission

ashley14 6 years, 7 months ago

Yes Johnmcntsh you will. In the US nurses make around 40.00 per hour. My sister in law only works weekends and makes around 60,000 per year and that's two days per week. I would like to see other people with a degree work for minimum wages. That is the income of a full time McDonald's employee. Well actually they probably make more than that. Anyone that thinks that being a nurse isn't hard work, needs to rethink it. They have a important, stressful, hard demanding job. They have to take care of all of us when we are at our worse.

OMG 6 years, 7 months ago

I think all the regular contributors should get together for a beer one day-would be interesting.At least different opinions are expressed without resorting to insults and crude language.

banker 6 years, 7 months ago

Not me. Not my monkeys, not my circus.

If you get off the island for any length of time, you realise that there are clouds of negativity and repression that permeates the fiber of your being on our limestone rock. It is a cancer.

Bahamians are living in a sick society that has forgotten kindness, altruism, goodness and forbearance. We have fatally wounded Truth and our daily lives are filled with the corrosive acid of divisiveness that we eagerly dump on our neighbours and fellow man.

I can't believe that we have apologists for anti-patriotic, anti-social, and morally corrupt behaviour of our fellow man.

There isn't a perfect place on earth, but there are better places than what the Bahamas has become. I was a house guest this weekend with friends of a co-worker, and it surprised me that they do not lock their doors at night. They leave unwanted household items by the side of the road to be recycled by those who need them (a computer printer and an old sewing machine were two things that caught my eye). There was a local civic election going on, and I was invited for a question/answer period. When I said that I wasn't allowed to vote, I was invited anyway for a possible contribution to the discussion.

We have lost our way. We have lost our decency. We have lost our ability as a people to be authentic, truthful and kind. It won't be fixed anytime soon, because once the baser side of the animal spirit in humans is value-programmed, it is way too late for remediation.

It is sad. It is a major impediment to solving the considerable and overwhelming problems of The Bahamas.

ashley14 6 years, 7 months ago

Doctors start with 30K, are you kidding. Doctor's in the US make 6 figures and up. School teachers with 6 years of college or their masters make 60K and up. Principals of the schools make digits. I don't understand the difference in pay, and the cost of living is higher in the Bahamas. We don't pay 6 bucks for a gallon of milk or bread. Our gasoline isn't 6 or 7 bucks a gallon, right now it's 2.34 a gallon. I know everything is imported, I understand the increase in costs, however they are paying minimum wages. How can you make ends meet. There's the reason for the crime. They have squashed all of hopes and dreams, by suppressing the population. It's also how they line their own pockets, and get away with it. I'll say it once again, the paper reported they misplaced the hurricane fund. Many Millions just misplaced. Huh let's see! Guess what these people still have their positions within your government. Our politicians are corrupt, but when caught (THEY ARE GONE). I really don't understand, Take your Islands back and make them what they once were.

sheeprunner12 6 years, 7 months ago

Yeh ........ they make a lot of gross income, but Uncle Sam taxes that salary ...... but no income tax in The Bahamas (yet)

banker 6 years, 7 months ago

When you compare import duties, VAT etc, Bahamians are taxed higher than countries with income tax.

Porcupine 6 years, 7 months ago

Without5 doubt.

Reality_Check 6 years, 7 months ago

The brain drain is caused by the widespread corruption in our society (corrupt politicians, corrupt civil servants, racketeering numbers bosses, etc.) combined with failed law enforcement and a judiciary that is questionable at best. The U.S. is reaping all of the benefits of the nearly $600,000 I invested in my children's education. My children are enjoying their successful careers in the U.S. and happily pay significant Federal and State income taxes. They just did not want to return to the Bahamas after getting their graduate degrees and other professional qualifications. They keep asking me why am I still here!

ashley14 6 years, 7 months ago

I know why your still there. Everything put aside, It's a wonderful beautiful place. It's history and cultural is worth saving and the Bahamian citizens are kind, hardworking, family loving people. I came to the Bahamas for the first time in the late 70's and it's one of the best memories of my life. The people I met from young to old I've never forgotten, and one that I think about every single day. It is a shame that the politicians have robbed it blind and gave the people very little chance of prosperous life. Then the fact that these people are still there shows their strength and values. The Bahamas will always be a part of my life and one day I hope to get to stay permanently.

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