The Port Moresby General Hospital have hired 98 nurses on Short-Term Contract through the Office of the Director Nursing Services to assist with the shortage of manpower in the nursing division and contribute towards quality patient care.
According to CEO, Dr Paki Molumi, currently the nursing manpower is at 800 and PMGH requires 3,000 nurses to effectively provide quality patient care.
“We cannot provide quality patient care with this number. Patient care is compromised. Hence the recruitment of STC to fill the gaps.
The contract is for 6 months only. We will be working with the Department of Personnel Management to create permanent positions,” he said.
He also added that PMGH is looking at recruiting 200 nurses per year for the next 6 years up to 2030 to bring the nursing manpower to 2,000.
Dr Molumi congratulated the ninety-eight nurses saying it was a privilege for them to be in the institution and encouraged them to perform well during these six months.
He said that the hospital is developing curriculums for nursing such as the cardiac, cancer, kidney and others that will have to be delivered before 2025.
“We want to create a career pathway so that you become specialist nurses in those areas. So, your career pathway is there, and it depends on how you perform at the hospital,” Dr Molumi said.
Deputy Director Nursing Administration, Mr Vetari was grateful for the support from the management and spoke of more engagements between the staff and the management being the way forward.
Following the recruitment of the nurses, an orientation program was held on Monday, 23rd January with an overview presentation of PMGH, the Human Resource function, the Infection Prevention Control functions, roles and responsibilities, occupational health, and safety functions.