Family Nurse Practitioners here in St Vincent and the Grenadines now have a comprehensive guideline when it comes to the scope of management, care and diagnosis of patients, following stipulated regulations outlined by the General Nursing Council.
This, when on July 7th, the General Nursing Council launched the Family Nurse Practitioners’ Protocol and Formulary at the Seventh Day Adventist Church Conference Hall.
Minister of Health St. Clair Prince, in addressing the forum, said Family Nurse Practitioners play an integral role within the nursing sector and nurses overall form the “backbone of the healthcare industry, indispensable part of our health and wellness pursuits.”
Prince added that there is shortage of nurses worldwide with a global demand, noting that because of our dependence on specialized nurses, the Government is encouraging specialize training, as nurses now have a multi-faceted role.
The Health Minister noted that there are discussions at Cabinet level on how to incentivize specialist training especially among nurses.
“The FNP is a specialist, we have been encouraging specialist training throughout the system and we will continue to emphasise it…how do we encourage people to become specialists? Whether in FNP or whether in A and E or in theatre or Midwifery etc. How do we pay for those services …because it is a specialist service because people have specialist training,” Prince explained.
Chief Medical Officer, Dr Simone Keizer-Beache welcomed the new protocols and formulary noting that it strengthens Family Nurse Practitioners’ capacity to function as they should.
Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said Family Nurse Practitioners give many hours of service to their clients when compared to other countries in the region and stressed that Government is committed to having more Family Nurse Practitioners within the health care system.
Dr. Gonsalves note that Family Nurse Practitioners play a vital role at the primary health care level especially when it comes to prevention and management of certain chronic ailments.