A Fiji National University researcher is putting together a draft policy to redistribute medical staff at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in light of the ongoing loss of workers in the medical field.
Shanil Sukul, from FNU’s School of Medicine, said there was a strong need to adopt proper staffing frameworks to address the sudden loss of staff members in essential sectors such as health.
“I drafted a policy that I intend to share with the Ministry of Health and it is about the redistribution of nursing staff within a hospital to address the shortage of staff,” he said.
“The draft policy is mainly to address the gap that exists or the time from when the nurse leaves to when we find a replacement because definitely we cannot just go out and bring in any person to fill in the role.
“We must bring in trained nurses and that takes time.
“So, the draft policy is about redirecting resources and ensuring that each department has sufficient staffing while we look for new staff.”
Mr Sukul presented a study he conducted on 29 registered nurses at the CWM Hospital’s Emergency Department.
The research focused on the different levels of burnout faced by each registered nurse.
