Foreign scholarships for new nurses
Nadira Gunatilleke
The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry will grant foreign scholarships
to 19 newly-recruited nurses. The best newly-recruited nurse from each
Nurses Training School (NTS) who completes the three- year training will
be eligible for this scholarship to be granted under the direction of
Healthcare and Nutrition Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, a Ministry
spokesman said.
|
Nightingales |
| * Jobs for
270 nurses in US
* Demand in foreign countries
* Nurses get Rs 12,500 allowance
per month during training |
According to the spokesman, the Ministry has provided employment to
270 nurses in US while there is a demand for graduate nurses in the US,
Canada, Australia and Middle East. There are 1,000 more vacancies in the
US for Sri Lankan nurses. There is a big demand for trained Sri Lankan
nurses in foreign countries, the spokesman said.
Nineteen State owned NTS provides three years training for nurses.
The Ministry commenced recruiting 15,000 nurses to fill the vacancies in
the health sector and the nurses shortage has reduced by 99 percent.
The Government pays nurses an allowance of Rs. 12,500 per month
during the three-year training period.
It costs the Government over Rs two million to obtain the same
training from a foreign country, the spokesman said.
The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry will handover all 18 NTSs in
Sri Lanka to the universities soon enabling nurses to obtain degrees.
The Jaffna NTS will be handed over to the Jaffna University and the
Batticaloa NTS will be handed over to the Eastern University. Students
who sat for GCE A/L in the science stream and did not receive university
admission were recruited as trainee nurses. |
