Jamaica will not suffer any loss of qualified health professionals from the training and recruitment of practical nurses for jobs in Canada.

International Marketing Director for the Canadian-based Marmicmon Integrated Marketing and Communications (IMC), Professor Michael Patterson, said that the idea is not to recruit registered nurses but rather to train persons, who are interested in the health care industry.

“Persons, who may say that we are looking to drain Jamaica of its resources, we consider that to be a false argument because most of the people that we have identified are people, who are unemployed, who have decided basically to make an investment in themselves to train for a programme, which is not low-skilled,” he said.

Professor Patterson was speaking to JIS News at the official launch of the Licensed Practical Nursing (LPN) programme at the Runaway Bay HEART Hotel in St. Ann last week.

He said that the programme will definitely benefit Jamaica, in terms of addressing the unemployment problem.

The LPN programme is a partnership involving the Ministry of Labour and Social Security, the Centre for Nursing Studies (CNS) in Canada, and Marmicmon, and provides for the training of Jamaicans to work as practical nurses in Canada.

The 15-week training course is being offered at the Brown’s Town and Knox Community Colleges and at the Pre-university School. The CNS curriculum is used in the training.

Yesterday (Sept. 28), Canadian recruiters began interviewing some 187 pre-university students, who are expected to graduate from the programme within the next two months. The five-day recruitment exercise continues until Friday (Oct. 2).

“All the persons, who are being interviewed for jobs in Canada are students who are enrolled in the programme and are soon to finish,” Professor Patterson told JIS News. He informed that once a student has successfully completed the programme and satisfied all the background checks including criminal and medical records, then he/she will be destined for employment in Canada.

Professor Patterson appealed for more males to join the programme. “Nursing is almost recession proof and if you are man enough to be a nurse, then we are interested in hearing from you, because we find that as much as female nurses are in demand, male nurses are twice in demand as female nurses,” he stated.

The requirement for entry to the LPN programme is four Caribbean Examination Council (CXC) passes, including a science subject. Mathematics and English Language are compulsory.

Persons, who do not meet the CXC requirement, can still become a part of the programme, on successfully passing the Canadian Adult Achievement Test.

Interested persons can contact the Ministry of Labour and Social Security (MLSS) for further details.

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