TTRNA head says some nurses waiting to get vaccinated abroad

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TTRNA head says some nurses waiting to get vaccinated abroad

Head of the T&T Registered Nurses Association (TTRNA) Idi Stuart has admitted that there is some vaccine hesitancy among nurses.

Health officials last week expressed concern that many healthcare workers remained unvaccinated at this time.

However Stuart said one of the reasons for this is migration.

In an interview with GML, Stuart said “…the main feedback is that nursing personnel like to travel and they are looking to see which vaccines are accepted internationally, despite the assurance from the WHO that all vaccines are safe and effective.”

Stuart said the quarantine conditions being imposed by countries vary according to which vaccines have been administered and was now influencing the behaviour of many of these nurses as some of them are in the process of migrating to the US and the UK in search of improved employment opportunities.

He said “They would have a greater choice in terms of the type of vaccine they want to receive and so, some of them have chosen to wait.”

He stressed it was not a simple matter of vaccine hesitancy on their part, but because of professional betterment.

Stuart stated that there were other nurses who “simply do not care anymore because they want the Government to focus on some of the long-standing issues plaguing the health system.”
“They feel vaccination is low down on the scale.”

Additionally, he told the media house “The majority of them are telling us they have reviewed the literature and they are looking for a particular vaccine and if this means going abroad to get the vaccines of their choice, they have no problem in doing that.”

“Influencing and encouraging them is one thing and we have been working as an Association to get our members to take the vaccine, but if it comes to making it mandatory, we will have a difficulty with that…not only health sector workers, but all unions will have a problem with that,” Stuart said.

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