By Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter 
Wilson
THERE COULD be another exodus of nurses from Jamaica as early as next month, as a recruiting firm from the United States is seeking to fill 26,000 vacancies over five years in the state of Florida alone.
The firm, RGB Group Inc., an experienced and well-respected professional company in the health care industry in the US, stated in an e-mail to The Gleaner last week that they will be recruiting "degreed nurses, who are willing to work and reside in the United States, from Jamaica".
Expected to begin next month, the recruitment drive will continue for a minimum of five years in a bid to provide an immediate and long-term solution to the 26,000 vacancies in Florida.
Representatives of the firm explained that they have already started recruitment in South American countries such as Venezuela, Argentina and Uruguay, where they have been getting tremendous response. Due to language specification requirements, however, there was a problem. They have now turned their attention to qualified nurses in English-speaking countries such as Jamaica.
The minimum requirements for a qualified candidate, according to the recruitment firm, includes a nursing degree and at least two years of professional experience.
RGB will provide selected candidates with lodging, education and revalidation tools for their US degrees and licences, a working position, and sponsorship for visa and legal working status in the US.
In May, two other agencies from the US O'Grady Peyton International and International Staffing Unlimited began their recruitment in Jamaica, while Healthcare Connections from the UK joined them later.
Last year, both the Ministry of Health and the Nurses Associa-tion of Jamaica (NAJ) insisted that the health sector was not in trouble, despite the annual trek of Jamaican nurses seeking jobs overseas. However, Iris Wilson, NAJ president, in a telephone interview with The Gleaner yesterday, said, "We are already short. The more they recruit, the shorter we will be."
