Dear Editor,

It has been about nine months since my long-awaited graduation from university. Much so, it is quite unsettling to think that after four hard years of a college experience, with that promised expectation of employment and living the Jamaican dream, I still do not have a job.

It’s not that I haven’t been making efforts at getting one. I have sent out several resumes, with nearly five times as much follow-up calls, and the many days of fasting and prayer to seek divine intervention. But it would seem as though the repeated responses I get return like a recorded message on an answering machine that resonates the phrase: “The Government has no money, and you’d probably have to wait until after the IMF talks and budget has been read for the new financial year before anything can happen.”

Now that the IMF agreement has been approved, the situation remains the same. May I add that I happened to have majored in one of those programmes at college that has a majority of its workforce within the public sector. At the moment, I just wryly relish in the process of writing up resumes and being addressed with the title of Registered Nurse.

In the beginning, there was hope. The hope that fuelled the unrelenting lamp that lit the pages of our books when we had to study hard for those exams and tests; when we had to write those case studies, and report to the hospital ward for long hours to take care of the nation’s ill and dying. There were no encouraging stipends, but there was hope.

There was even hope when we heard pleasant stories of being able to migrate to foreign for a better pay and a sweeter life. And for those of us who insisted on staying back, there was a glimmer of hope when the leaders we so trustingly looked up to took to the podium with all confidence to make promises we hoped so dearly they would keep to.

There was hope whem the Jamaica Observer carried an article on May 13, 2012 titled “Health minister delivers good news to nurses”:

“I wish to assure you that there is no conflict between Jamaican nurses and their Cuban-trained counterparts in the public health sector, and all efforts will be made to absorb locally trained nurses into the public health system,” Ferguson said. “This Administration is committed to establishing a creative incentive programme aimed at attracting and retaining health care providers in the system, including neglected rural areas.”

Sir, it has been seven months since our Regional Examination for Nurses Registration and yet no one is really saying much to calm our anxiety or provide reassurance of this promise made. Where do we stand? What really is going on?

The Students’ Loan Bureau has already begun, from January 2013, issuing requests to pay back borrowed loans. There’s a mother and her two children waiting on that job call from the regional health authority. Please, don’t get me wrong, we understand the times that are currently plaguing the nation’s economy, and as our professions beckons, we do empathise.

And we also understand what it is to be able-bodied and industrious, with the capacity to find other lucrative and worthy means of earning a decent living, be they outside of our professional calling. But there was a reason we chose nursing. There was a reason we chose to serve the nation’s citizens in the capacity of health. The hope we have that we can able to touch a life and make a positive difference, however little.

Today we only humbly ask that our leaders do not let this hope totally fade into oblivion. We really would like to go to work. I thought the hospitals and health centres were understaffed, Minister?

Uchenna Obi

chobi_xl@hotmail.com