Mpumalanga Department of Health will celebrate International Nurse's Day in Mmamethlake Hospital in the Dr JS Moroka on Tuesday, 19 May 2009, starting at 09h00.
The celebrations takes place under the theme: "Delivering Quality, Serving Communities: Nurses leading Care Innovations."
The theme captures the essence of what nursing is, and what needs to be done to improve the quality of care as it relates to patient care. It encapsulates our long held view that nursing is about serving the communities.
The celebrations takes place just two months before the historic International Conference of Nurses which for the first time will take place in Africa and South Africa in particular in July at Durban.
International Nurses Day is celebrated annually in honour of the pioneer of nursing profession Florence Nightingale. We celebrate the day also to revive the honour and respect that has historically been associated with the profession and discuss the pertinent issues that confront nursing profession in our present day.
It also takes place amidst changes in the nursing education curriculum which are aimed at improving the quality of nurses that are produced through the system. Government has made tremendous progress in improving the salaries of nurses with the introduction of Occupation Specific Dispensation (OSD) which was affected in July 2007. This has seen even nurses practicing in the private sector returning to public service. Our greatest expectation is to see these improvements translating into better customer care and improved quality of care to patients. This remains area of work that requires collective effort from all stakeholders in the public health sector.
Provinces like Mpumalanga continue to have chronic shortage of nurses especially in rural areas, where even if we have build 24 hour operating state of the art facilities, we are held back by shortage of professional nurses.
"Nurses are without doubt the nerve-centre of our efforts to improve healthcare service delivery as part of the African National Congress (ANC) manifesto, which for the next five years will put more focus on delivering quality health care services to all the people in the province," said MEC for Health and Social Development Dikeledi Mahlangu.
Media is invited.
For more information contact:
Mpho Gabashane
Cell: 082 802 4937
Issued by: Department of Health, Mpumalanga Provincial Government
15 May 2009
