THE salary and pay systems for all nursing colleges and nurses in the country will come under the Department of Higher Education, Research, Science and Technology (DHERST) and not the Department of Health (DOH) as of January 2023.
DHERST acting secretary, Dr Francis Hualupmomi announced this at a combined Melanesian Nazarene School of Nursing, Melanesian Teachers College and Melanesian Bible College graduation at Tuman campus in Kudjip, Jiwaka Province, last Friday.
He said as of January 2023 the salary system of the nurses throughout the country will be managed by DHERST system, and it will no longer be under Department of Health.
He said the National Government has approved the budgeting allocation for the nursing colleges and nurses and they will be managed under DHERST.
He said the Department of Health will recruit and certify the nursing officers. The training will be done by DHERST.
The Department of Health’s responsibility is to recruit you, the nurses, they (Department of Health) will recruit and certify you and that is their function.
The training function is not their function.
Training function is the responsibility of DHERST.
Dr Francis Hualupmomi, acting Secretary for DHERST
He said the teachers are already paid under DHERST in January this year.
He said the department implemented the decision last year, which is after two decades,
It was a challenging task, because institutions and government agencies are working together for the common good.
Dr Hualupmomi
Dr Hualupmomi said when he took office as acting secretary, he made sure that decision is fully implemented.
Last year we implemented the 1995 NEC decision.
That is about more than two decades when the government made the decision to transform all the colleges from different ministries to the office of higher education at that time.
We became a department and we are fighting very hard to ensure that we get all those tertiary institutions and colleges to DHERST.
Dr Hualupmomi
He said that the department took only eight months and to make that happen starting in May 2021.
Dr Hualupmomi said all colleges as of today are now under DHERST.