DEMAND for nurses in the country increases each year yet annual intake of students remains the same because there is no improvement to nursing colleges, Mendi School of Nursing principal Sr Lucy Langer says.
Poor infrastructure and limited facilities are the major problems, she added.
No new buildings have been built in the colleges to cater for the increasing demand for nurses.
Langer said the Mendi school, which opened in 2011 after closure due to tribal fights, is slowly being rebuilt.
She said the college was supposed to enrol only 30 students but enrolled 80 after students fronted the office forcefully.
Langer said she could not turn them away as it was their right but the problem was limited facilities and poor infrastructure.
However, the school managed somehow and those students were doing their final year now.
“To regulate the national health plan, how can we increase the number of staff in the hospitals when nursing colleges are neglected?”
Langer said due a tribal fighting, the college was closed in 2002 and should have reopened in 2010 but did not have enough equipment and material to operate til 2011.
“Due to the influx of students, the college faced shortage of classrooms and had to break down one of the staff buildings and use it as a classroom,” she said.
“If the country really needs nurses, then why not improve nursing college facilities so that the numbers will increase to meet the demand.”
Langer said rural areas needed nurses but poor infrastructure was a barrier that made nurses reluctant to go and the government had a big job to improve the health facilities.
She urged community health workers to upgrade their marks and enter nursing colleges. The Natiional
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