With about half of the students enrolled in nursing schools in English Speaking CARICOM countries dropping out before graduation, a new World Bank report has urged regional governments to look into increasing the completion rates among nursing students to bolster the workforce in the health sector.

"The Nurse Labour and Education Markets in the English-Speaking CARICOM: Issues and Options for Reform" report which was launched last week identified this as one of the "viable option to meet the demand for nurses" as scores of nurses leave the region annually to take up better paying posts in countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada.

"Maximising the completion rate and increasing intake by 50 per cent would result in a 230 per cent increase in the number of annual nurse graduates," said the report.

Despite doubling the number of nursing schools since 1988 from four to eight, the annual migration of nurses and the inability to turn out a large volume of graduates has created a number of vacancies in the county's health sector. In 2007 for example, the number of available nursing post in Jamaica' labour market was 970. Most of those vacant posts were at the secondary, tertiary and supervisory level. In addition to this, there were 90 vacant positions in primary health care and five vacant posts for nursing education.

Most of the nursing school's in the island are under the direct control of the Ministry of Health, with the only exceptions being those programmes offered by the Mandeville-based Northern Caribbean University and the University of the West Indies School of Nursing.

Students enrolled in nursing schools across the island are given the opportunity to pursue a certificate in nursing, diplomas or Bachelor's degrees.

Over the years, the Jamaican government has been offering stipends and subsidies to students attending most of the nursing schools. Loans and scholarships were also made available to nursing students with funding for these scholarships coming from the National Health Fund and the Pan American Health Organisation. Students receiving scholarships for over $500,000 are bonded for five years in the country.

Sector director for Human Development in the World Bank's Latin America and Caribbean region, Evangeline Javier, last week painted a gloomy picture for the future of Jamaica's health sector if nothing is done to bolster the number of nurses in the island.

"Although a skill labour force is already among Jamaica's assets, there is a shortage of skilled workers, which is increasingly hampering the country's competitiveness. These shortages are being greatly felt in the health sector, weakening the quality and the efficiency of health services," she said, adding that, "While the demand for nurses increases, the supply will slightly decrease under the current labour and education market conditions."

The report was the World Bank's first comprehensive study undertaken for the Latin American and the Caribbean region and looks at the nurse's labour market and education in Jamaica, Guyana, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.

In addition to increasing the training capacity of it's nursing school, the report also suggested that the Jamaican government increase the salary levels for the nurses, recruit more foreign nurses for clinical areas and nursing schools as well as to promote Bachelor's degree programmes to combat the imminent threat the shortage of nurses poses to the health sector.