MaximsNewsNetwork: 12 October 2009 - UNTV: United Nations: Developed countries like the United States are enticing nursing staff from around the world with higher pay, causing shortages in their home countries.
A country of just over 700,000 people, Guyana is rapidly losing a valuable asset, its skilled nurses.
Lured by offers as much as 55,000 US dollars a year far exceeding what they could ever hope to earn back home some 25 to 50 percent of Guyanese nurses are leaving the country.
SOUNDBITE (English) Jacqueline Gulstone, Nurse:
I am grateful that I was trained in Guyana. I didnt pay a penny for my training in Guyana. I have four years of training, and four years of quality training that I am very proud of.
Wanting to study further and earn more, Jacqueline eyed the United States as a land of new opportunity.
Settling in Brooklyn, New York, she worked hard to fulfil her dreams.
During the day Jacqueline worked as a nurse; by night she hit the books. Today shes a nurse practitioner at Brookdale Hospital Medical Center.
American hospitals like this one are starved for nurses.
SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Pinnacchio, Brookdale Hospital Medical Centers Director of Nursing:
There are people who are interested in going into the profession but because there are not enough educators to teach these students, what happens is that the class sizes are very small and the number of nurses that can go through the programme is really diminished.
Brookdales director of Nursing, Susan Pinnacchio, says with too few nurses graduating from American schools, American hospitals are forced to recruit from abroad.
SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Pinnacchio, Brookdale Hospital Medical Center s Director of Nursing:
Many of our nurses come from the Philippines , from Guyana , from some of the Caribbean islands.
But whats helping the U.S. is hurting here in Guyana . Harold Robinson of the UN Population Fund, UNFPA, believes that the exodus of nurses is affecting health care.
SOUNDBITE (English) Harold Robinson, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA):
All the efforts, not only the countrys efforts in terms of reducing maternal mortality, but all the health sector efforts are really constrained by this out migration.
Its also putting pressure on nurses like Andrea Duncan who decided to stay behind. She works the day shift at the state-run Georgetown Hospital .
Caring for pregnant women, she stretches herself thin handling a heavy load.
SOUNDBITE (English) Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Health of Guyana:
Lets not have any doubt and make no bones about it, migration of our health workers impacts severely on achieving health for all.
Still a poor country, Guyana pays its nurses less than 300 US dollars a month. Its not enough to get by.
SOUNDBITE (English) Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Health of Guyana: If salary is one thing that attracts people to other jurisdictions, there is no way that we will compete in the foreseeable future with the United States .
Doctors are also feeling the brunt. Lu Pinhong, a Chinese gynaecologist working in Guyana , treats women who cant afford private care. She desperately needs nurses to help her.
SOUNDBITE (English) Leslie Ramsammy, Minister of Health of Guyana:
They have helped to reduce the gap, the deficit that exists in terms of financing. They have been able to provide some much-needed human resources.
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Guyana authorities no match for druglords - 05 Mar 09by AlJazeeraEnglish165,652 views
That breaks my heart to see the condition of that country, and the economy isn't helping; but making it worst.
Taxminia0311 1 year ago