Nurses from the Department of Public Health answered calls to help with the pediatric nurse shortage at Guam’s only public hospital
Reporting on this story is PNC’s Khyomara Santana…
Nine nurses from Public Health volunteered to work at the Guam Memorial Hospital to help with the nurse shortage in pediatric and emergency rooms.
This is after Dr. Bob Leon Guerrero said that there was a shortage of pediatric nurses at GMH during last week’s public health meeting, especially now that “children are getting more sick” because of the cold and flu season.
Zennia Pecina, Public Health’s acting Chief Public Health Officer said “Our nurses saw Dr. Bob’s candid take on the increase in pediatric patients hospitalized for both respiratory and viral illnesses last week and approached us if they could help.”
Five of the nine nurses have already taken orientation at GMH and will be starting as soon as next Thursday.
Addressing the recent shortfall of nurses in GMH is possible now that DPHSS COVID-19 community services were consolidated to one site in Tumon.
Lt. Governor Josh Tenorio said that “This is the kind of inter-agency collaboration and leadership initiative that stewarded the success of our health care response and recovery over the past few years,” now that they are able to shift human resources to where they are needed the most.
Although GMH’s pediatric unit was at maximum capacity over the weekend, the hospital says that as of this morning, the number of cases is steadily going down.
Reporting for the Pacific News Center, I’m Khyomara Santana.
