LILLIPUT, St James — Nurses employed within the education sector have expressed frustration that a number of their grouses, including the lack of job description and shoddy treatment meted out to them in public schools, have remained unresolved for more than 20 years.

Some have indicated that they will be leaving the education sector before the start of the new school term.

“I can tell you that come September, we will be losing some nurses because it is just so frustrating. It is just so frustrating for them. As they said yesterday [Tuesday] in our general meeting, that there comes a time when you have to think of your own mental health and well-being and put that first,” chairperson for the School Nurse Special Interest Group (SNSIG) Vonetta Johnson Hamilton told the Jamaica Observer on Wednesday.

She was speaking after her address to SNSIG’s 20th Annual General Meeting and Health Education Conference held at the Iberostar Rose Hall Hotel in St James.

SNSIG consists of registered nurses, some of whom are midwives and mental health specialists, who work within preparatory, high and tertiary institutions. The group, which is a branch of the Nurses’ Association of Jamaica (NAJ), falls under the Ministry of Education and Youth as well as the Ministry of Health.

While the SNSIG has evolved with changes within the sector over the years, its core function of health promotion remains the same and Johnson Hamilton told the Observer it has been a challenging career.

“Our hands are tied a lot when it comes to our ability to carry out our job and what we see as necessary in the job. Oftentimes, we are constricted by the limitations of administration and their perceived idea of what we should be doing,” she stated.

“Oftentimes, we are relegated to carrying out first aid… I had to say to someone once that first aid is what you as a certified first aider do until I get on the scene. I go beyond first aid. When I enter an ambulance with a patient and there is an EMT (emergency medical technician) there, my qualification supersedes that of the EMT and what can be done there,” she added.

Johnson Hamilton said her colleagues are distressed.

“It is very frustrating when you know you can do so much more and you’re not being challenged to do it or being allowed to carry out your duty in a school as it is,” she said.

She gave the example of being upbraided by a school principal who dismissed medical advice she provided after a student became ill at school sometime in 2019. Johnson Hamilton said she asked for permission to take the child to a nearby clinic but the principal told her to “go back to your office and call the parents”.

She indicated that she had tried contacting the parents and was not successful and that in her professional opinion there was the need for a “second opinion of a doctor”.

She said the principal replied, “Nurse, since you don’t understand, ah fi mi school and mi say carry him back around to your office, put him down and when the parent come, they take him to the doctor. If you tek di pickney outta yah, yuh an him don’t come back through my gate tomorrow morning.”

She is also concerned about what she said were loose systems in place within the school system.

“There are some procedures and policies in place in the ministry, but they are not being reinforced at the school level. There is no accountability,” stated Johnson Hamilton.

She said the issue is compounded by the fact that school nurses do not have representation within the Ministry of Education.

“We are literally bridging that gap, which we are happy to do. But because we’re in that gap, we’re also in that gap as it comes to representation,” stated the SNSIG chairperson.

“There is a chief nurse in the [Education] Ministry. There is no chief nurse in the Ministry of Health, but we are employed by the ministry of education and governed under the Ministry of Education, though we are carrying out the mandate of the Ministry of Health,” added Johnson Hamilton.

She said this is an anomaly they have for years asked to be addressed but to no avail.

“We are celebrating 20 years, and there are still things that were on the table from day one that are still on the table, not having been done 20 years later,” complained the SNSIG chairperson.

“We have been in a place for quite a number of years where they are looking at a job description,” she said.

Among the suggestions ignored over the years, according to Johnson Hamilton, is their call for representatives in the region and a key individual in the Education Ministry who will deal with policy issues and liaise with the Health Ministry.

“We have put it forward many times over the years and with the change of successive persons, we have gone back to the table. We had a meeting with Minister [Fayval] Williams in 2020 and we were promised quarterly meetings. I am reminding the minister of that promise. We continue to remind her of that promise. That’s the only meeting we had,” stated Johnson Hamilton.

In a message sent to the conference from Ministry of Education Region 4 Director Dr Michele Pinnock the group was assured that the ministry is addressing the nurses’ concerns.

“The ministry understands the importance of having a sufficient number of school nurses, especially at the primary level, and we are treating this issue as a matter of policy,” stated Senior Education Officer Jacqueline Brown Gordon who represented Pinnock.

Schools nurses are reminding Minister of Education Fayval Williams of her promise to hold quarterly meetings with them (Photo: Naphtali Junior)