764 new Nursing Assistants graduate from Hybrid Training Programme

Seven hundred and sixty-four (764) students graduated today from the Ministry of Health’s Nursing Assistant Hybrid Training Programme. The graduation ceremony took place at the National Cultural Centre.

The programme was initiated by the Government in two years ago as part of its efforts to increase the number of trained Nursing Assistants in the country.

In April 2024, over 900 persons enrolled in the programme, but only 875 of them commenced the training.

The students were engaged in online theoretical teachings, and in-person practical sessions for a period of 12 months.

Minister of Health, Dr Frank Anthony said the hybrid programme forms part of Government’s agenda to build a world class healthcare system in Guyana.

He said while the Government has been investing heavily in infrastructure development in the Healthcare Sector, including with the the construction of six new hospitals, its biggest challenge has been the availability of the human resource to fill the jobs.

“So, all six of these hospitals, we will be opening them over the next couple of months, and we want to have staffs in these hospitals. And that is why, when we were thinking about how we are going to run these facilities, who is going to help provide the care that is needed, we thought that we have to come up with a very innovative way in how we are going to train people. And, we want to maintain the same quality, but we want to ensure that people get good training,” the Health Minister explained.

He said many of the graduates will be deployed to the six new hospitals at Lima, De Kinderen, Enmore, Diamond, Bath, and No 75 Village.

Those hospitals, he boasted, would be equipped with all the critical facilities and equipment to improve the delivery of healthcare services.

“So, at each of these hospitals, we will have onsite an oxygen plant, where we will be able to manufacture our own oxygen for each of those hospitals. And that would be piped to the various beds in the facility. We also have, and I am trying to explain this to you because most of you would be going to these facilities to work,” Minister Anthony said.

The nursing assistant programme was developed in partnership with Coursera – an online platform.

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