Consider new options to keep nurses, NAJ urges Government

The Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) is pushing for certain options to be considered by the Government in an effort to reduce the loss of nurses who are being aggressively recruited to work overseas.
   
Janet Coore Farr, NAJ President, believes the problem can only be solved if the Government collaborates with stakeholders in the sector.   

Speaking on RJR's Beyond the Headlines, on Monday, she said the time has come for a joint approach to be pursued.

"What we need to do now is to form a partnership with the Government; sit down and look at strategies... to see how we can stem some of this," she said, in reference to the departure of nurses to take up opportunities abroad.

Asserting that "not all the nurses who leave here want to leave," she said measures must be put in place to induce those who are not enthusiastic about leaving, to abandon those plans to go overseas.

She said that in previous negotiation cycles the NAJ had managed to secure lands and scholarships for some of its members.

It was now time to go beyond those initiatives, she said.