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CCNTV6
  • 2 years ago
There are technically no registered NICU or other specialist nurses in Trinidad and Tobago. That's according to President of the Registered Nurses' Association Idi Stuart, who tells TV6 that non-specialist nurses routinely work in specialist units at our nation's hospitals... and while there are some nurses with specialist training, there is no national registry to mandate or enforce standards as it pertains to their training. He's calling on the Ministry of Health to get its act together... and he's also calling on the NWRHA to come clean about the nurse-to-patient ratio at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Rynessa Cutting reports.
Transcript
00:00 A fresh layer of concerns and questions has come to the fore as it relates to the circumstances
00:06 surrounding the deaths of seven babies at the Port of Spain Neonatal Intensive Care
00:10 Unit.
00:12 This time, the Trinidad and Tobago Registered Nurses Association is weighing in, citing
00:17 issues of staff shortages and credentials.
00:21 The Trinidad and Tobago National Nursing Association calls for the publication of the number of
00:30 nursing personnel who are attached to the NICU Department of the Port of Spain General
00:37 Hospital.
00:38 We would want to know if the internationally accepted and locally implemented policy in
00:46 terms of patient to staff ratio within the NICU Department of one nurse to one patient
00:52 was being followed.
00:53 Also, there is the lack of supervision.
00:56 A lot of these RHAs do not have the number of nursing personnel, do not have the number
01:04 of experienced nursing personnel because what is one thing to have nursing personnel so
01:10 they could come out and say, "Yes, we have the required number of nursing personnel."
01:14 But are they trained in the specific specialty?
01:19 And currently as we speak, there is no nursing specialty accredited nursing school to teach
01:30 the neonatal intensive care.
01:32 Stewart says there are some nurses who have acquired specialty training in some areas.
01:38 But he notes there is no specialist nurses registry in Trinidad and Tobago.
01:43 We don't have a registry for specialist nurses.
01:46 So that should be one of the priority areas the Ministry of Health and the Nursing Council
01:51 need to work on, a registry for specialist nurses.
01:54 And with that registry, you would end up having a mandatory continuing education for those
02:00 specialist nurses.
02:03 So we have nurses who are trained in specialist areas and we have nurses who just work in
02:09 specialist areas.
02:10 They may not even be trained.
02:13 And more than likely, you would have that in this very neutral department.
02:17 He says it is obvious that there was a serious shortcoming at the unit as it pertains to
02:23 hygiene and sanitation.
02:26 He's calling on the Northwest Regional Health Authority to come clean.
02:30 How often they would be swabbing the area for infections.
02:35 It can be just now swabbing after the incident occurred.
02:39 This has to be an ongoing thing.
02:43 Every 48 hours you're supposed to be doing swab analysis of the area to identify if there's
02:47 an increase or decrease in particular infections or bacteria.
02:52 So it cannot be a knee-jerk response.
02:55 The medical chief of staff must be held to account.
02:58 And if it means that person is doing the honorable thing and resigning, well then so be it.
03:04 Renessa Cutting, TV6 News.
03:07 [BLANK_AUDIO]
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