Post by montegobayjobs on Aug 29, 2020 11:57:32 GMT
The Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) has revealed that ten nurses have tested positive for the coronavirus and more than 50 are now in quarantine awaiting test results.
NAJ President Carmen Johnson on Friday expressed concern about the number of nurses being exposed to the virus.
She told Radio Jamaica News that 21 nurses from one institution are now in quarantine.
Miss Johnson said this affecting the delivery of service in the public health system.
"...A number of our nurses would have been exposed or tested positive and so the challenge for some of our institutions now is how do we seek to maintain the level of staffing that we have, where it is totally difficult when we're sending off....20 per cent of your nurses for 14 days and another set in the middle of that one. And so the challenge is with staffing the ward, trying to reorganise the ward, being cognizant again that our spaces are what they are and that you have persons with regular illnesses who are coming in," she declared.
Miss Johnson is also worried about the rapid increase in coronavirus cases in the country.
"We expect that we are going to have increase in our numbers but our hope is that we would not be jumping by hundreds and eighties. Our hope is that we would be inching in the twenties and thirties. But everyday now, you having the hundreds. So it simply means that exposure rates within the healthcare facilities is even greater," she noted.
In addition to those concerns, the NAJ president said several nurses are suffering from burnout after being required to fill the void created by health practitioners going into quarantine.
She said registered nurses are now "shouldering the burden of the primary healthcare duties" and because many nurses who were scheduled for leave before the coronavirus had to postpone those plans, fatigue is beginning to set in.
NAJ President Carmen Johnson on Friday expressed concern about the number of nurses being exposed to the virus.
She told Radio Jamaica News that 21 nurses from one institution are now in quarantine.
Miss Johnson said this affecting the delivery of service in the public health system.
"...A number of our nurses would have been exposed or tested positive and so the challenge for some of our institutions now is how do we seek to maintain the level of staffing that we have, where it is totally difficult when we're sending off....20 per cent of your nurses for 14 days and another set in the middle of that one. And so the challenge is with staffing the ward, trying to reorganise the ward, being cognizant again that our spaces are what they are and that you have persons with regular illnesses who are coming in," she declared.
Miss Johnson is also worried about the rapid increase in coronavirus cases in the country.
"We expect that we are going to have increase in our numbers but our hope is that we would not be jumping by hundreds and eighties. Our hope is that we would be inching in the twenties and thirties. But everyday now, you having the hundreds. So it simply means that exposure rates within the healthcare facilities is even greater," she noted.
In addition to those concerns, the NAJ president said several nurses are suffering from burnout after being required to fill the void created by health practitioners going into quarantine.
She said registered nurses are now "shouldering the burden of the primary healthcare duties" and because many nurses who were scheduled for leave before the coronavirus had to postpone those plans, fatigue is beginning to set in.