PRIME Minister (PM) Manasseh Sogavare has congratulated the newly graduated 79 nurses during his nationwide address this week.
The seventy-nine nurses (79) have graduated to Registered Nurse (RN) status after successfully completing a 12 months ‘Nurses Supervised Practice program on Friday.
“Fellow citizens, allow me to also congratulate the 79 nurses that have been awarded full registration by the Ministry of Health last week,” he said.
Mr. Sogavare said that the nurses are now ready to be deployed to support both normal health services at the National Referral Hospital as well as the ongoing COVID-19 operations.
“This is important as many of our nurses at the National Referral Hospital are also engaged with COVID-19 operations,” he said.
The PM further said that these newly graduated nurses will greatly alleviate pressure on the already outstretched number of nurses at our hospital as there are health service gaps in terms of health service delivery.
It is understood that nurses are playing a pivotal role during this challenging time especially in the preparedness, response, and recovery stages of the pandemic.
Mr. Sogavare said there are a total of 75 nurses and 55 doctors currently working at the National Referral Hospital.
These nurses and doctors are also enlisted into a two weeks rotational COVID-19 deployment roster.
He said that after the completion of each deployment, nurses and doctors’ concerns are expected to attend to their normal duties.
By FOLLET JOHN
Newsroom, Honiara
