Importance of Nursing highlighted at Conference

The importance of Nursing to the development of countries was highlighted at the recent opening of the Regional Nursing Conference.{{more}}

The ten-day conference began on Monday, July 19, 2010, at the Grenadine House at Kingstown Park. Delivering the featured address, Minister of Health Dr. Douglas Slater stated that the nursing fraternity has not been promoted enough as one of the successes of regional integration.

Slater added that nurses themselves are convinced of their importance to the development of their countries, “but more people need to hear that, understand it and acknowledge it.”

Speaking about the global shortage of nurses, Slater said “there has been and will always be a shortage of nurses in the Caribbean region.” He added that the nursing programme in St. Vincent has seen nurses migrating to other Caribbean countries to work.

Facilitator of the programme Ann DeRoche outlined that the group of regional representatives from several CARICOM countries will review different aspects of the Regional Nursing Exam, including the pretested items from October 2009 and April 2010.

The meeting will cover the development of the table of specifications for the October 2010 and April 2011 exams, as well as reviewing items to be added to the “examination bank”. The meeting will also discuss new guidelines and items for pretesting for the 2010-2011 exams. A business meeting will also be held to address general problems relating to the Nursing exams.(OS)