The Continuous Professional Development (CPD), introduced in July last year for nurses under the Nursing Council Act, continues to cause ripples.
With a large number of employees not meeting the required five points for 2023 and a faulty database system in place, those most affected are calling on the Minister of Health, Kailesh Jagutpal, to intervene.
The new team leading the Nursing Council since March 5th – following elections held in September last year – has a tough task ahead.
Particularly with the thorny issue of CPD for both public and private sector nurses : there are reportedly a total of 4,800 nurses in the country according to the latest figures from 2022) which came into effect in July last year.
It has been reported that nearly half of the nurses have not yet achieved their required five points for 2023, and among the other half, many have lost their points due to issues with data storage.
L’Express cited an unidentified insider as claiming that the sudden introduction of CPD without a prior pilot project to identify weaknesses has led to several problems.
“The officers responsible for compiling the data have not been trained for this task and are doing the best they can with limited resources. There is no proper system in place, unlike with the Medical Council. Most of the information is stored on Excel sheets which have unfortunately experienced technical problems. Recently, for several nurses who had already completed their five points, their data has simply disappeared and now shows zero points. So, there is a major problem. We no longer know exactly who has completed CPD or not.”
Furthermore, technically and legally, since the CPD regulations are already in effect, all nurses’ licenses should have been renewed from January 1st of this year.
“It turns out that most of them are working ‘illegally’ in the meantime because the Nursing Council cannot properly carry out the renewal process.”
For those with zero points despite completing CPD courses, the Nursing Council is currently requesting proof, at least for those who have it.
It is explained that several meetings have taken place between Nursing Council representatives and Minister Kailesh Jagutpal in an effort to find a solution, but so far there has been no resolution.
The latest attempt in this regard was reportedly a letter written by Nursing Council President Krist Dhurmah to the Health Minister, which also went unanswered as of yesterday.
According to Nurses’ Union Secretary Bholanath Jeewooth, the ideal solution would have been to exempt all nurses from the five points requirement for last year.
Because there are some who were unable to attend any CPD courses and have zero points. He estimates that about 500 of them fall into this category for reasons such as health issues and pregnancy.
“We could have made CPD mandatory starting this year, with the requirement for ten points which are not difficult to achieve,” he suggests.
He also mentions that several CPD sessions are being held each month, for example at Dr A. G. Jeetoo Hospital, with each session accommodating up to 60 people.
“It just takes everyone to make the effort now.” On the other hand, sources from the Ministry of Health indicate that they will not reconsider their decision and will uphold CPD as requested for nurses, similar to what is required for doctors.
Source: l’Express
