NASSAU| The Minister of Health & Wellness, Hon. Dr. Michael Darville, attended the PHA Academy’s launch of its Trained Clinical Nurse Certificate Programme at the School of Nursing campus, on Grosvernor’s Close this past Monday. The Public Hospitals Authority also used the occasion to commission three (3) new ambulances into the National Emergency Medical Services fleet of emergency vehicles.
The new TCN class totals thirty-six (36) students descending from multiple islands across our archipelago, including New Providence, Grand Bahama, Andros, Abaco, Long Island, and as far as Mayaguana.
In his remarks to the student nurses, Minister Darville outlined that initial human resource surveys indicated that The Bahamas is experiencing a shortage of 173-180 specialty nurses and approximately 450 nurses. Minister Darville announced the recruitment of nurses from Ghana and the Philippines as a short-term measure to strengthen nursing services. The fully accredited TCN Program, and the other programs that will follow, will address long-term issues with respect to nursing shortages.
Minister Darville highlighted the enrollment of four (4) male students in the class of TCN. The new ambulances commissioned during the event are part of a wider procurement exercise of emergency vehicles to strengthen the ambulance fleet in New Providence and Grand Bahama, and to also implement a new ground transportation system throughout the Family Islands to ensure every Island has access to EMS responders in a fully equipped ambulance.
PHA Managing Director, Dr. Aubynette Rolle and PHA Chairman, Andrew Edwards, accompanied the Minister on a tour of the refurbished School of Nursing which will continue to serve as a site for training and instruction for the University of The Bahamas School of Nursing and the PHA Academy.
