The Tribune

THE president of the Bahamas Nurses Union, Amancha Williams, says that nurses are calling it quits and seeking work elsewhere.

Since the start of the year, she says as many as 60 nurses have left because of low morale and unresolved labour issues.

To be clear, we should not forget we are still in a pandemic and that maintaining the levels of staff necessary to deal with any future surges is critical.

So what do we do to deal with this exodus of nursing staff?

Well, let’s look at what’s going on, for starters. One of the things that Ms Williams points out is that “we’re losing too many nurses to America, Canada and the UK”.

Throughout the pandemic, there have been high salaries on offer from a number of healthcare systems, such as in the US, for nurses to help fill the number of posts needed to deal with wave after wave of virus cases. It is little surprise that some Bahamian nurses might find themselves able to take advantage of that bump in their pay packets and sign up.

There has always been the case though that Bahamian nurses might find an avenue to go and work in the US, so it’s a long-standing situation exacerbated by the current pandemic.

Ms Williams talks of needing a pay increase, an industrial agreement and so on, but there have been some measures already put in place to try to increase the number of nurses.

Last month, 50 Cuban nurses arrived to help ease the strain. Ms Williams welcomes those nurses but with a grumble about needing to “teach and ensure that what they’re doing is (following) protocols”.

She added: “We do have a little issue with the language barrier because they don’t speak fluent English.”

We should be grateful – as Ms Williams says nurses are – for the arrival of nurses from a nation with as strong a medical reputation as Cuba.

Cuba has developed a strong reputation for the strength of its medical training – and we’re lucky to have these nurses.

Indeed, perhaps this is a sign of what we should be doing in future. Just as our nurses find themselves in demand in the US, should we not be trying to do the same by attracting nursing staff from other nations?

There are plenty of nations we might be able to draw from in the Caribbean region alone, but perhaps there might be specific nations further afield we might be able to draw recruits from.

Rather than lamenting the departure of those going on to opportunities elsewhere, we should make the most of opportunities that can be offered here.

Increasing wages and completing industrial agreements shouldn’t be the be all and end all of negotiations here – rather let’s consider what can be done to remedy staffing issues long-term.

That will still see our best rewarded and encouraged to stay here, but giving them the support they need from elsewhere.

Visit many US or UK hospitals and you’ll find workers from around the world, all delivering top-class healthcare. There’s no reason we cannot take a page from their book.