Government has put in place a number of incentives to improve working conditions of nurses in Dominica and help stem the problem of nurse migration which has become a serious problem in recent times.
Acting Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Social Services, Letisha Lestrade-Wyke said at a press conference on Tuesday that the incentives include a one-time special uniform allowance, increase in night time and on-call allowances, among others.
“A special relief uniform will be paid to the nurses. Annually nurses are paid a uniform allowance by September. This one-time relief will not be a substitute for that uniform allowance, so they will get this,” she said.
She said there were other allowances that were increased by 100 percent.
“We had the night nourishing allowance, it is not a night duty allowance, it is an allowance to provide a meal for you while you do night duty and that was increased by 100 percent,” she explained. “We had the nurses in the district, who do on-call and called-out, their allowances were also increased by 100 percent.”
She went on to say that the called-out or on-call allowance for nurse practitioners was also increased by 100 percent.
Furthermore, she noted that the Ministry of Health has presented a proposal in terms of nursing sessions.
“Nursing sessions, when a nurse is off duty it is not overtime, you are off duty, you report for duty and we pay you for your day,” Wyke stated. “Those allowances were also increased, the rate of pay was also increased.”
Since Hurricane Maria, a number of nurses left Dominica raising concern among officials here. Health Minister, Kenneth Darroux, said the matter was “fast nearing critical level.”
Oh boy, the regime is offering the nurses a few cents and they themselves feast on millions. I just hope the nurses will tell them in no uncertain terms to keep their few cents and stick it where the sun don’t shine. We need to dismiss Skerrit and his cabal once and for all. For years their policy has been to patch up things and hope for the best. Not once they can come up with an intelligent solution that solves problems once and for all.
They don’t feed on millions, is that what youall dying to get in there to have access to? ? emmm
But I Kia understand that government..them man there are some waste of time… man skerite my boi u destroying our country. My boi u and your party hand over the baton . U people are sick .. important people like police teachers firemen and nurses should be the best payed on the island … are you guys idiots? I mean that is what u calling prudent management? Man u crazy leaders I doeno who keep voting u fellas there back in office.. I doe see nothing u labour party did for Dominica that bring job.. 18 years wi.. look at the place. ..man u and your clowns comout there…..
OK.
So we keep our nurses by giving them food on the job and a uniform.
buh where i be dere nah
That’s how Skerrit dem work, putting a plaster on an infected bobo
These incentives are welcomed, however, a salary increase would still be necessary since not all nurses will benefit from them for one reason or another. Even with the increase in session pay rate nurses are exhausted because of the nurse to or ratio!
An allowance to buy a bigger sandwich once a day. A one time uniform allowance.
If I may venture to say, nurses need increase in salary. The money for one nurse to buy two pieces of chicken instead of one piece cannot feed their families. The money to buy an extra uniform cannot buy clothes for their children, especially school uniforms. They cannot pay rent out of a sandwich money.
What about health coverage for nurses and their families. What about assistance for those who would like to further their studies. What about safe and reliable transportation, especially for those who have to travel late nights or very early morning hours.
Can the PS address these issues? Does the PS understand how insulting and degrading it is to offer a nurse an extra piece of chicken, or extra fries or an extra topping on a slice of pizza, as an incentive?
A major problem that this most wicked everlasting evil extremely lazy labor paka travay government is that they are reactive and not proactive. They could see a problem staring them right there in their face and will do nothing until it becomes a major issue. A fine example is look at how much stuff was left unfixed after tropical storm Erika which was greatly exposed when hurricane Maria came along. They don’t believe that a stich in time saves nine, rather they think that the more passports they sell the more their pockets and the country will be fine
100% increase into specific incentives doesn’t mean much unless the raw figures are given. The main concern of the nurses is a salary increase. Nothing whatsoever was mentioned of this. Why? The government is sidestepping the main concern of the nurses. Although the incentives may be of some help, the salary increase overrides everything else. The lack of supplies and equipment is also of monumental importance. The ethos of the institution is not conducive to a healthy working relationship among staff.
If the nurses are looking out only for their personal improvements and not for the improvements in the physical infrastructure and supplies with which they work, then this is disappointing to health services in the country in general.Do the nurses care about the people who come into their care at all? and with the horror stories being reported about the poor service being received, then like the striking teachers in the US asking for supplies to do their job properly, then I would have thought that the nurses in Dominica would care about the sick people who come into their care and request supplies to make the sick people whole as best as they can.When government operatives añd close associates fall sick there are private planes and hellicopters to take them overseas for good medical care.Hope more nurses will stay now they have been looked after a little better
They will remain when you come home to plant instead of playing manager in a Korean produce store in Philly.
These nurses are people too. They have families to look after too. Don’t be so ignorant. If a nurse is concerned about her family’s well-being how much effort and focus and attention do you expect to get out of her? Would a first responder leave his family in peril to go secure someone else’s family??
This is a set of nonsense. Who ever these people in power are its looks ridiculous in the outside word. This will no keep nurse. As far as it states you all running them way. This is craziness
If a nurse is off duty. This is consider as her off day.. should she be required to work on her off day she should be compensated by 1.5 times her rate of pay.. please treat our nurses with respect..Nurses on night duty should be paid a shift premium..These men and women leave tgrur family to perform a duty of attending to the sick..This is an essential service..Lets start taking them seriously and conlensate them for a great job they have been doing otherwise other countries will continue to benefit from them. They will continue to migrate because they have bills to pay including their student loans.
There is always some form off poor excuses, is nurses in Dominica getting 5000 dollars a month? Not even 4000, with all that allowances mentioned there, you mean a bank officer still sending a nurse go and look a husband to get a mortgage. This simple saying these allowances mentioned are not genuine.
It’s an oxymoron, being proactive after damage had been done. Our nurses can surely use these incentives.
Nice gesture but what is the dollar impact of these initiatives. For example, a 100% of a penny is of course still one penny.
Having recently visited the emergency unit at PMH I must confess the atmosphere was unwelcoming. Yes, we expected a long wait but in over an hour of waiting, not one person came out to check to see who needed urgent care or to acknowledge the waiting sick.
I know nursing can be a tough job, especially the emergency nurse, but in a hospital setting people expect a little compassion than we experienced that day. If a pay increase or incentive compensation improvement will change the attitude of the indifferent nurses, then I strongly support the administration’s decision.
It’s called management!
They’re not indifferent, there just aren’t enough of them and the ones that are there are overworked!
These allowances were improved 100% true. But tell us Miss PS what were they before the increase….. Those allowances were Peanuts and you must have been ashamed that’s why u didnt give the before figure.
Secondly you finish victimize and demoralize your nurses at matron level they give you foot now to do it at a higher level?
This government is trying to dress a bullet wound with a bandage. Increase the salaries of nurses and you will see a reversal of trend in departures. It is not rocket science.
But they only paying Dr. Darrow to think inside the box, right?
I’m not a nurse, but I believe one of the things the Gov’t could do for the nurses is to provide transportation for those who are on late shift. A nurse should not have to leave work at 12/1 AM and be waiting for bus…. give the nurses a bus.