Recruiters of nurses on the island have been asked to re-examine the recruitment process so as to attract the best people into the nursing profession.
Former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of health Jean Jacob told a recent panel discussion organized by the Dominica Nurses Association that attracting and recruiting the best people into nursing is important to maintain and drive forward high-quality healthcare services in Dominica.
“You are not going to put that individual behind a desk. You are going to put that individual to care for people, to understand people… so it’s not just anybody wash foot and come”.
There has been concern about the attitudes of some Dominican nurses towards the profession and efforts have been made at a national level to train nurses in customer relations. While Jacob is applauding these efforts she offers this advice.
“I think as trainers as a learning institution we have to examine what we do, how we recruit nurses into the profession. I know there is a pre-nursing programme, what is it supposed to do? Is it only to determine academics? Do we look at behaviours, do we look at attitudes during that period to determine whether these are people who should be in the profession”?
Jacob is suggesting that proper standards be set in order to identify early weaknesses in prospective nurses.
“There has to be some kind of process to examine the people who come into the profession. We have to look at recruitment and what type of behaviours should be tolerated in the profession at a very early stage. I think when we take in students into the profession and then we complain after then it’s after the fact”.
The Former Permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health is also suggesting that a cadre of professionals be identified to assist in the development of Dominica’s nursing service.
Jacob believes it’s important that young nurses know who the trailblazers in the profession were.
““As a nursing profession what are we doing to keep our profession visible utilizing the present and the past is also important .I would like the nurses association to consider getting the retired nurses who worked in the community to have a dialogue with the younger nurses to share their experiences and difficulties in the profession”.