Following the Biennial General Meeting of the Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA) held at the Radisson Hotel Port of Spain, on October 25th and 26th 2016, this new executive has been tasked with several objectives to fulfill in a short period of time.
Top priority for the Association, is the Rationalization of Nursing Education. This emanated from Resolution 6 ‘Urgent need to review the Basic Nursing Education Curriculum in keeping with the core values of the Nursing Profession’. This was proposed by Ms. Beulah Duke and Seconded by Dr. Oscar Ocho and Mrs. Joycelyn Hackshaw, which was carried uncontested by those present.
This resolution, which forms a subset of the larger TTRNA vision, was immediately acted upon by this executive as we saw it as central to the revamping of the Nursing Profession. It cannot be that students of four (4) nursing schools, who are preparing to write the same Regional Examination for Nurse Registration (RENR), leave their respective schools with varying qualifications. That of Certificate in Nursing, Associate degree in Nursing and Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing.
Since coming into office in November 2016, TTRNA immediately began calling for a meeting with the Minister of Education via phone and letters dated 16th December 2016 and 24th April 2017, who is ultimately responsible for all Nursing Education. This is due to the recent unification of the Ministry of Tertiary Education into the Ministry of Education following the 2015 general election. This meeting was eventually forthcoming after TTRNA lobbied the Minister of Health and the Minister of Labour for assistance in getting a favorable response from their Ministerial colleague.
The first meeting eventually took place on May 18th 2017, at the Ministry of Health head office, P.O.S, under the auspices of the Minister of State, in the Ministry of Education, Dr. Lovell Francis. Attendees included the TTRNA President, Directors/Chairmen/Managers of the four (4) Nursing Schools, Nursing Managers from the four (4) Regional Health Authorities in Trinidad, Board appointed nurses in the (RHA), Nursing Council President, and Ministry of Health officials.
While TTRNA is pleased that the process has started in revamping nursing education in the trust towards dragging the nursing profession and by extension Trinidad and Tobago healthcare into the 21st century, we are mindful of previous failed attempts and wishes to assure the nursing population that we will not relent in our pursuit to see this project through to the end.
Although TTRNA is open to all points of view on the rationalization of education in Trinidad and Tobago, the association also wishes to place on notice, to all parties concerned, that the following four (4) recommendations made at the first meeting, is not open for compromise:
1. The minimum entry requirement into nursing as a RN/RMN, must be a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing.
2. The minimum entry requirement into nursing as a Nursing Assistant, must be a Diploma in Nursing.
3. Only Schools who can deliver the curriculum at the Diploma and Bachelors level, should be allowed to offer training for student nurses.
4. Specialist Nurses, ought not to be trained at the Post-Basic level, but rather at a Post-Graduate Level.
These areas of nursing education are so fundamental to the improvement of our noble profession and to the financial standing of nursing personnel, that each aspect of it will be dealt with separately in upcoming articles. While most persons on the above-mentioned committee are of similar forward-thinking inclination, there are those who wish to thwart our efforts. TTRNA promises to publicly highlight those who wish to pursue their own individualistic interest rather than those of the wider profession. There is no room for personal aggrandizement and self-seeking behavior in this struggle for the betterment of the nurse’s given allotment.
As TTRNA continues to educate nursing personnel on matters that affect them, we also call on nursing personnel to engage the respective persons highlighted in this article, with a view to see what is there stance on these central issues of nursing education. We must become proactive in charting our future as nursing personnel, and not be dealt the short hand of the stick by other groups because we did not have a voice at the decision-making table. Always remember;
If you do not have a seat at the table, you are probably on the menu.
Idi Stuart
TTRNA President 2016-2018
