As the curtain came down on Nurses Week on the weekend, Patsy Edwards-Henry, president of the Nurses Association of Jamaica (NAJ), renewed a call for advanced practice nursing legislation, more than 40 years in the making, to be taken through the nation’s Parliament
“We want to have that passed!” Edwards Henry told The Gleaner last week during the NAJ’s Founders’ Day celebration at the Summit Lifestyle and Business Campus in St Andrew.
“Each time we are updated, we’re told it’s advanced. We need it now to be completed and passed,” she reiterated.
In 2019, Saidie Williams-Allen, the then acting deputy chief nursing officer in the Ministry of Health and Wellness, told nurses at the Nurse Practitioners 66th National Seminar at the Royalton White Sands in Trelawny, that the legislative framework for nurse practitioners to practise in Jamaica was far advanced.
Nurse practitioners are advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) who work independently and who serve as primary care providers to mitigate the effects of physician shortages in underserved areas. They are trained to assess patient needs, interpret diagnostic and laboratory tests, diagnose illness and disease, prescribe medication, and formulate treatment plans.
