KINGSTON - With the resignation of 77 of the hospital's nurses last year, most of whom left for greener pastures overseas, the University Hospital

of the West Indies (UHWI) is facing the daunting challenge of finding senior nurses to fill managerial positions at the institution and to mentor younger nurses.

The problem was highlighted by senior director of nursing at the UHWI, Beverly Atkinson, who was responding to questions at the weekly Monday exchange meeting of editors and reporters at the Observer's Kingston offices.

Atkinson said while the hospital had been able to hire 55 recent graduates to fill the vacant positions, there was not much remuneration to encourage more senior and qualified nurses to stay on the island.

"The problem is that the middle level nurses - and usually those are the more experienced ones, the ones who have done post-basic courses - they are now the ones who are being invited to go to the United States . . . and other Caribbean islands that offer a better package than we do in Jamaica.

So we lose our nurses and we lose the persons who are available to mentor the new nurses," said the senior nurse.

Only 45 per cent of the hospital's under 700 nurses are level two nurses, a less than satisfactory figure, since hospitals generally require more level two than basic nurses.

These senior nurses are required to work in midwifery, in the accident and emergency unit and in the intensive care unit, as well as other critical areas.

To make matters worse, Atkinson said the senior nurses usually left after being trained at the expense of the institution and without giving sufficient notice.

"We are struggling very much now because you allow people to go through with basic courses, you set up succession planning, with the hope that you are going to get this person, and I don't know of other countries where persons are not open to tell you that they are going to be leaving in two months down the road," she said. (Jamaica Observer)