TERTIARY scholarships are to become a permanent part of the wage package for nurses in Jamaica, minister of Health Rudyard Spencer said last week.

"The nurse might not be able, at the end of it all, to acquire the house or car she'd like to acquire, but if she can expand her education it will make her more marketable for the future," Spencer said after announcing an award of six tertiary scholarships to the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ).

Four of the six were given by the health ministry and two were awarded by the Ministry of Finance and the Public Service. The value of the scholarships was not disclosed but they will each be for a two-year Master's programme at any accredited tertiary institution in the island, according to NAJ president Edith Allwood-Anderson. She said, however, that the University of the West Indies and the University of Technology would get preference since they are public institutions.

"We are offering them on conditions that we hope will become part of your collective labour agreement," Spencer said, pointing out that "intangible" offerings are just as important as "tangibles".

Spencer was speaking at the NAJ/Lasco Nurse of the Year award ceremony which was held at the Hilton Kingston on Saturday. The 62nd anniversary of the association's founding was also observed on that day.

"In the negotiations we brought up to minister Dalley when he was minister, was [the concern] that the nurses were having difficulty accessing Masters' degree training," Allwood-Anderson said. "Out of that, he granted one scholarship to the national Nurse of the Year and three to the NAJ. We then chose three outstanding members who are ready. This year we have Mr Noel Julius from Bellevue, Anthonette Patterson from Kingston Public and Quedeth Johnson from Mandeville Regional hospital.

"Most importantly, Mr Dwight Nelson has agreed that the ministry will give us two and they have sent to inform us that it will be part of a general agreement, in terms of our negotiations," she said.

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