In photo from left to right: Mr. Idi Stuart – TTRNA President, Dr. Lovell Francis – Minister of Education, Beryl Brewster – Senior Nurse Lecturer and 2018 President Medal awardee, (Not in photo - Letitia Cox- 2nd Vice President)

TTRNA had the pleasure to meet with Minister in the Ministry of Education – Dr. Lovell Francis at his office on Monday 18th March 2019 for lengthy discussions into rationalizing nursing education in Trinidad and Tobago. TTRNA is pleased the Minister shared no objection to our proposals, which have been on the cards for decades and is consistent with global best practice.

Some of the topics discussed consisted of:
1. Entry requirement into Nursing as an RN/RMN to be a bachelor’s degree. This is inline with ICN, WHO, CARICOM, Triple Impact Report by APPG
2. Entry requirement into Nursing as an ENA to be a Diploma. This will allow for the easy progression of ENAs to become RNs/RMNs with the use of earned credits and continuing education onto the degree.
3. All Nursing Courses to be delivered from a University or College.
4. All existing staff of the Ministry programs, to be absorbed into one of the Universities or College that the Government has an interest in. Providing them with the security of tenure which is currently absent and quality teaching facilities.
5. All post basic qualifications for nursing, must be done at a bachelor’s level and above. This improves the competences of nurses, while simultaneously allowing TTRNA to negotiate for better renumeration for specialized nurses as we gallop to becoming the Recognized Majority Union for Nurses.

As part of TTRNA emphasis on our Nursing Now Campaign, an in-depth explanation of the above points, as well as other areas discussed at this meeting will be shared with the nursing public. TTRNA expects a large turnout of nursing and midwifery personnel to this free event, as we expect all nursing and midwives to care about the state of their profession in the 21st century and share their ideas and recommendations.

The first of which is carded for Wednesday 10th April 2019 in the Scarborough Library – Anne Mitchell Gift Auditorium, Tobago.
This will be followed by:
Wednesday 8th May - City Hall, Port of Spain
Tuesday 28th May – Civic Centre, Sangre Grande
Tuesday 11th June - City Hall, San Fernando
All sessions will be held from 5pm to 7pm. Refreshments will be served.
Please see attached TTRNA 2019 calendar of upcoming events.

The Association looks forward for our anticipated follow-up meeting with the Minister, as nursing personnel can look forward to benefiting from the expected changes to come.

#IamNursingNowTT