CNMI to host nurses' conference
Some 100 nurses are expected to arrive here next week to attend the five-day American Pacific Nursing Leaders Council (APNLC) Conference which will discuss various issues confronting the nursing profession, specifically, providing quality care within limited resources.
The conference will be held as the CNMI nurses face the perennial problems of low salary, inadequate number of nursing staff and improvement in the quality of staff.
With the theme “Trans-cultural Nursing in the Next Millennium,” the 21st annual nursing conference is also expected to tackle the federal programs in the Pacific Basin and cultural competence in the practice. This developed as Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio signed a proclamation yesterday declaring June 14-18, 1999 as the APNLC Conference Week.
According to Damiana O. Kaipat, president of the CNMI Nursing Association, the lack of interest among the youth to pursue the nursing profession contributes to the difficulty in the recruitment of the right people.
Every year, the association visits the different schools in the CNMI to entice them to pursue a nursing career. “It is not a popular career here in the CNMI. We hope we can convince more people to join the profession,” she said.
In recruiting people from other countries, Kaipat noted the importance of passing the NCLEX, a requirement in seeking employment in the CNMI. She added that expectations must be clarified during the recruitment stage in connection with the hospital administration and policies to avoid problems. Furthermore, a regular staff performance evaluation must be carried out to determine their level of competency in their profession.
Earlier, the Department of Public Health was looking at the possibility of sending some local students to Hawaii to study nursing and its allied courses at government’s expense.
However, due to budgetary constraints, the CNMI government has not been able to carry out the planned program. Developing the island’s own nursing workforce has been a problem, thus, it has to rely in recruiting the needed staff abroad through manpower agencies.
Due to the low salary offered by the Commonwealth Health Center, many of the nurses who pass the NCLEX do not stay long on the island because of higher pay in the US mainland.
