Kenya losing 800 nurses yearly

• Most of them go to the US, leaving a huge shortage in the local hospitals

More than 800 nurses leave the country every year to seek employment abroad especially in the United States of America.

Most of them are women aged between 30 to 46 years working in the public health sector and are highly qualified, statistics at the Nursing Council of Kenya show.

Statistics from the Nursing council of Kenya indicate that on average 840 nurses apply for verification of their certificates with an intention to migrate.

“Countries of destination are the USA accounting for 59 per cent of applications and the UK with 27 percent,” the Secretary General of the Union of Kenya Civil Servants, Mr Tom Odege, said during the International migrants day.

Migrants Day

Mr Odege said migrants day celebration comes at a time when more and more workers are moving across the globe in search of work against the backdrop of an economic crisis and rising unemployment.

He said the migration of the public health sector workers has contributed to the deterioration of services to Kenyans because there are about 17,000 nurses against the required 45,000 for hospitals to function effectively.

The report reveals that an estimated 10,000 nurses work in the private sector with approximately 1,500 to 1,800 nurses graduating annually from the 53 medical training colleges and seven universities training nurses in Kenya.

Working hard

It said that despite this good production, there lacks an policy to employ these nurses thus bringing a great challenge for the country to meet millennium development goals.

He said Public Services International and its affiliate unions in Kenya were working hard to defend better pay and working conditions so that the health care workers have an option to stay.