Retired nurses are apparently not beating a path to the doors of the Seymour Avenue retirement home, St Andrew, which the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ) spent $15.4 million to build in 2003.

The home can accommodate up to 12 persons, but at present has only four occupants, the state-run Jamaica Information Service (JIS) reported.

The agency quoted NAJ general secretary Zetta Bruff as encouraging retired nurses to use the home, saying it was designed to meet the needs of retired nursing colleagues, their families and others in the autumn of their lives. There is also a flat to accommodate registered nurses continuing further study.

“Usually they (nurses) are from out of town and they come into Kingston for a six-month course or one-year course,” Bruff said.

“We also offer short-term plans for retired nurses. So let’s say that you have had surgery and you really do not need nursing care, but you just want to be in an environment to just recuperate, you can do this at the retirement home,” she added.

Further, retired nurses returning home can benefit from using the facility.

“From two days up to three months or whatever time, we offer that service, but we would have to interview that person and come to some arrangement,” Bruff explained.

Pressing the point, Bruff said: “It is a retirement centre built for retired nurses, not a nursing home per se, and it is for those nurses who just do not want to continue with the day-to-day running of a house. These persons do not have to think about washing their clothes and paying bills, because everything is incorporated in the boarding. It is a home away from home.”

The home was opened with much fanfare, and billed as by far one of the most ambitious tasks undertaken by the NAJ, at its opening four years ago. At the dedication ceremony, then Minister of Health John Junor commended the association for the tenacity displayed in making the retirement home a reality.