The General Nursing Council of Guyana now mandates local nurses to access ongoing education and training as a new requirement to stay in the profession.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony said the issue was among several matters addressed at a recent statutory meeting with the senior leadership of nursing in the country, as they dealt with the current challenges and the future of the profession in Guyana.
“One of the requirements for nurses now is that for them to be registered as a practicing nurse, every year they will have to do continuing nursing education, so they will have at the end of the year, or when they go for registration for the new year, they will have to show evidence that they have had this continuing nursing education,” Dr Anthony said Wednesday.
The minister noted that continuing nurses’ education was in place, but not many persons were compliant.
He related that doctors are engaged in continuous education and nurses must follow suit to stay in touch with the latest development in the field.
“So, we will be working with the various nursing bodies to make sure that we do these upgrades to have these lectures so that nurses could have easy access to nursing education,” the health minister said.
Following the passage of the Nurses and Midwives Act No. 7 of 2022, Dr Anthony appointed 16 persons to serve as members of the nursing council from July 1, 2022, to June 30, 2025.
The Council is mandated to evaluate and register nurses, midwives and nursing assistants seeking to operate in Guyana.
The recent statutory meeting also discussed additional training in nursing, including the ministry’s plans to move from classroom-only training to hybrid training − part online and part classroom− for registered nurses.
The ministry is currently working with several partners to get the programme started to train 1,000 persons annually, a stark increase from the current 250.