DOUBLE STANDARD? Cuba-Trained Nurses Cry Foul

DOUBLE STANDARD? Cuba-Trained Nurses Cry Foul
Published: Sunday | July 21, 2013 0 Comments
Erica Virtue, Senior Gleaner Writer

Twenty-four Jamaicans who graduated from the nursing programme in Cuba
in 2012 are crying foul and pointing fingers at the Nursing Council of
Jamaica, the local accreditation agency.

According to the nurses, while Cuban nurses who arrive in Jamaica are
immediately placed in local hospitals, the council has refused to
accredit them and instead instructed that they do a six-month internship
in a local health facility.

The nurses say the council has ruled that on completion of the
internship, they sit and pass the regional exams which are administered
to all final-year nursing students trained in Jamaica.

"I finished training in Cuba last July. We sat down for six months not
doing a single thing because the Nursing Council claimed they did not
know about us," said one of the Cuba-trained nurses who spoke to The
Sunday Gleaner last week.

"The council said we would have to do a six-month internship at local
hospitals, although the first group of six nurses who returned in 2010
did not have to do the internship.

"We started our internship in January this year, and were told that it
would finish on July 5. We are still on internship, although it's a week
and half after the deadline," claimed the nurse who asked that her name
be withheld.

Six years of training

She said members of the group completed six years of training in Cuba -
which has also trained scores of doctors who are currently in active
practice - but coming back to Jamaica has been a nightmare.

"They want us to do the regional exams. It's the final exams that
students who are trained here do. But Jamaica is recruiting nurses from
all over the world, including Cuba, Burma and Nigeria, and they are not
expected to sit that exam, but they expect us to sit it. It's not fair,"
lamented the nurse.

Recruits for the Cuba nursing programme responded to newspaper
advertisements encouraging them to apply.

The say representatives of the Cuban Embassy in Jamaica, the ministries
of health, education, foreign affairs, and officials from Jamaica Trade
and Invest met with them before they departed.

The Jamaican Government provided a stipend of US$1,000 per year to
students who provided three guarantors with a promise to return home
after being trained.

"I was one of 30 students. Twenty-four of us returned, but six will
graduate on Thursday (July 18). They were behind in some courses. We
were required to have a minimum of six CXC subjects, including
mathematics, English and a science subject," she said.

Nurses accredited

She said the first batch of nurses returned to the island in 2010 and
were accredited by the Nursing Council.

Members of her batch, who left Jamaica in 2006, have reportedly been
told that they are a larger group and could not be certified.

Last Friday, registrar at the Nursing Council, Merle Rochester-Riley
told The Sunday Gleaner that the Cuba-trained nurses have not been
placed following the six-month internship because it has not received
any report from the agencies where they were placed.

"We are waiting on word from the Ministry of Health and for any further
information, you should contact the human resources department at the
ministry," said Rochester-Riley.

"They cannot use the others (who were trained in Cuba) to plead their
case, as we did not even know that they were going to Cuba," added
Rochester-Riley.

However, efforts to get the Ministry of Health to assist the
Cuba-trained nurses have been unsuccessful.

Neville Graham, director of communication at the Ministry of Health said
the issue is outside the remit of the ministry.

"The issue is one of accreditation, which rests solely with the Nursing
Council of Jamaica. This ministry is not involved in that, so your
questions are best directed to that body," Graham told The Sunday Gleaner.

Several years ago, the Medical Council of Jamaica, the body which
accredits doctors to practise in Jamaica, withdrew the automatic
accreditation that was accorded to Cuba-trained doctors, and instructed
them to do a one-year internship at a local hospital.

Source: "DOUBLE STANDARD? Cuba-trained nurses cry foul - Lead Stories -
Jamaica Gleaner - Sunday | July 21, 2013" -
http://jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20130721/lead/lead5.html