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Student nurses in assembly protest

Thu, Jun 3rd 2021, 08:40 AM
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A SMALL group of student nurses demonstrated in Rawson Square yesterday, calling for the ability to complete clinical hours in the hospital in order to graduate.

Completing a certain number of clinical hours is a requisite of the Nursing Council. However, the nursing students have not been able to meet those requirements because of stipulations in COVID-19 protocols which restricted them from face-to-face clinical training.
#Standing in the rain outside of Parliament, the group held signs which read “Free the nursing students” and “put Bahamian nurses first @ Minister Wells”.
#Fourth-year student Grace Lightbourne said they have been “denied the right to graduate”. She hoped their demonstration would bring a solution. She estimated there are up to 200 students who are trying to graduate from the University of the Bahamas.
#The 22-year-old said: “I know that it’s been put in the media most recently that there are students that graduated but there are more students that are waiting to graduate and there are students that have been held back for an entire year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and we’ve gotten excuse after excuse.
#“However, medical students are in the hospital. They’ve been allowed to complete their rotation hours, but nursing students aren’t. Trained clinical nurses students are actually in the hospital now, but Bachelor of Science in nursing students are not.
#“Why is that? They are claiming that ‘oh the clinical area isn’t ready.’ When is it ever going to be ready? COVID-19 isn’t going anywhere and it’s not going any time soon. The hospital is not going to improve in the snap of a finger but we need solutions now. You cannot hold us back for years and every week we see in the media the shortage of nurses is getting worse.
#“The more you hold us up, the more backlog of hours....in my cohort we have a total of 836 hours just to complete and that’s only four classes to complete and to be done and to graduate.”
#She noted they had reached out to the Bahamas Nurses Union (BNU) who invited them to a meeting with the minister, but he reportedly cancelled it.

Completing a certain number of clinical hours is a requisite of the Nursing Council. However, the nursing students have not been able to meet those requirements because of stipulations in COVID-19 protocols which restricted them from face-to-face clinical training.

Standing in the rain outside of Parliament, the group held signs which read “Free the nursing students” and “put Bahamian nurses first @ Minister Wells”.

Fourth-year student Grace Lightbourne said they have been “denied the right to graduate”. She hoped their demonstration would bring a solution. She estimated there are up to 200 students who are trying to graduate from the University of the Bahamas.

The 22-year-old said: “I know that it’s been put in the media most recently that there are students that graduated but there are more students that are waiting to graduate and there are students that have been held back for an entire year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and we’ve gotten excuse after excuse.

“However, medical students are in the hospital. They’ve been allowed to complete their rotation hours, but nursing students aren’t. Trained clinical nurses students are actually in the hospital now, but Bachelor of Science in nursing students are not.

“Why is that? They are claiming that ‘oh the clinical area isn’t ready.’ When is it ever going to be ready? COVID-19 isn’t going anywhere and it’s not going any time soon. The hospital is not going to improve in the snap of a finger but we need solutions now. You cannot hold us back for years and every week we see in the media the shortage of nurses is getting worse.

“The more you hold us up, the more backlog of hours....in my cohort we have a total of 836 hours just to complete and that’s only four classes to complete and to be done and to graduate.”

She noted they had reached out to the Bahamas Nurses Union (BNU) who invited them to a meeting with the minister, but he reportedly cancelled it.

 

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