Sri Lanka nurses protest delaying extension of training period

Sri Lanka Government Nursing Officers' Association protests the decision by the Ministry of Health to appoint another committee of specialists to evaluate a proposal from the nursing trade unions for extending the training period of student nurses.

Currently, the nursing diploma takes three years and a cabinet paper is pending to extend it to three years and four months to provide the student nurses training on midwifery and psychology.

The training in these disciplines is now conducted by the Post Basic Nursing Training School but only a fraction of nurses are trained since the institute lacks facilities, says the Chairman of the Government Nursing Officers' Association Saman Rathnapriya.

He says that instead of getting the cabinet approved, the Ministry has appointed a five-member committee comprising only doctors to re-evaluate the proposal. The Government Medical Officers' Association opposes the nurses being given additional training, says Saman Rathnapriya.