President of the Dominica Nurses Association (DNA), Mignon Rolle- Shillingford, has said that nurses have the right to request increased salaries and better working conditions.
She was speaking on DBS Talking Point Programme on Tuesday as the country observed International Nurses Day.
“A lot of times some people believe that because nurses are nurses that they should not ask for money, they shouldn’t ask for remuneration, an honest pay for honest work. This is not correct,” she said. “Even if we love and we give ourselves, we still need to be remunerated properly and it is not wrong for us to ask for increasing salaries and maybe better working conditions in some areas.”
According to her, no nurse should be made to feel less or wicked because they are asking for increased pay.
Meantime, Rolle-Shillingford thanked the government of Dominica, on behalf of the DNA, for what she said is the privilege to serve and to lead in many ways.
“We thank you the citizens for the trust and confidence with which you have let us enter your private and public space so we can nurse you to good health and life,” the DNA president stated, adding, “but there is so much we can do if you listen to our voices, all our voices.”
She went on to say, “We cannot nurse the world to health when its governments ignore us, nor can we nurse the world to health when the world abuses us” and highlighted the need for the rights and a positive practice environment to enable nurses to achieve universal health coverage and sustainable development goals.
She said nurses’ response to the Covid-19 pandemic has revealed that “better than we ourselves could ever verbally convince you, that no nursing care is too daunting for us to deliver, and no place is too far to deliver that care.”
Rolle- Shillingford made it clear that no one is denied nurses care based on race, religious belief, political affiliation, social class or infection status.
They say it is illegal for nurses to strike but all nurses should strike unless their requests are met. Man turn millionaire in 15 years and has not done 1 honest days work and nurses there accepting peanuts.
The power is in your hands nurses. If all hospital and clinic don’t have nurse see how fast things will change for you all.
I had a first hand experience to the dedication and hard work nurses perform on a daily basis. I have the highest praise for one nurse Abraham, who is a kind compassionate sole .I always bring supplies and small medical devices when I visit. Yes, these nurses deserve better pay and allowances .There should be a special fund set up to increase the salaries especially at this time of Covid 19 pandemic. May God continue to bless these nurses.
Anyway, my people not easy yeh. When the other nurse say the same thing, it didn’t have Clorox to wash her. Now supporters talking, it ok. Yes my people.
boy dominicans are some wicked ppl for reel …now the nurses in a life and death situation they suggesting they can and may ask….bro thats some reel evil shi…
The nurses deserve much better. They have been screaming out, to the top of their voices, for the longest time, for an increase in salary and better working conditions. In fact, most civil servants are due to an increase as inflation has long diminished the purchasing power of the working class. Nurses, expect your cries to fall on deaf ears. Skerrit presides over a nocturnal and an uncaring government. Everything this administration does, especially of a financial nature, is shrouded in darkness. The State’s finances are guarded by the PM and his cronies the way a lioness guards her cubs. Lower your expectations for the next five years about increase in pay. Tighten your belts even if it is tightened to the last hole and brace yourselves for unimaginable hardship and unbearable suffering.