A new state-of-the-art nursing school in New Amsterdam, Berbice, capable of housing 1,000 students, is nearing completion and set to become a centralised hub for nursing education in Region Six. Regional Executive Officer Ronald Harsawack said the facility is approximately 98 per cent complete, with furnishing under way and tutor recruitment continuing ahead of its opening.
The school, built on the site of the former New Amsterdam Hospital, will feature lecture halls, simulation rooms and laboratories for practical and theoretical training.
Harsawack said discussions were held with the Ministry of Health several weeks ago to identify a possible opening date, but the institution will only become operational once it is fully equipped and staffed.
“As soon as we get the full complement of tutors and the place is fully furnished, we’re going to move swiftly into opening that facility so we can have our own in-region training for nurses,” Harsawack said.
Ahead of the school’s opening, the REO said Region Six is preparing to launch a pharmacy assistant training programme.
“In the interim, we’re looking to push off a pharmacy assistant training course very soon. We’re looking at a few more participants to make the batch. And even before that school opens, we’re going to run off a batch of pharmacy assistants, so we can further spread them out across, across this region,” he said.
Harsawack said the region continues to produce qualified nurses, but maintaining an adequate healthcare workforce remains an ongoing challenge due to attrition. He said although approximately 60 nurses, including registered nurses, nursing assistants and midwives, may graduate in a single batch, the healthcare system requires significantly more personnel to meet growing demand.
“Because we have to keep training batches after batches to deal with attrition. We’ve got to deal with expansion as well. And we have minimum standards that we need to reach, and patient-to-nurse ratio as well. So while people may say, ‘Oh, 60 is a lot of nurses that we’ve trained,’ there are many cases where we need 3 times more 60 to adequately cover what we want. But it means that we can quickly get nurses here. We can get people from Region 6. So we don’t have much issues of transportation and accommodation to bring people into the region,” he said.
Harsawack said the nursing school will allow Region Six residents to pursue nursing education closer to home, describing the project as a significant investment in the region’s healthcare sector that will help ensure hospitals and health centres are adequately staffed.
