Programme Director- David Makhombe
President of the Democratic Nursing Association of South Africa (DENOSA) - Dorothy Matebeni
General Secretary of DENOSA - Thembeka Gwagwa
Johannesburg Executive Mayor - Amos Masondo
Commissioner from Zimbabwe - Clara Nondo
Nurses present here today
Ladies and gentlemen
It is with great pleasure that I join you today in the first South African nurses’ conference aimed at creating a platform for all our nurses to play a part in drafting policies relevant to delivery of quality care.
The nursing profession continues to be the backbone of our health system and is key in achieving quality healthcare in this country.
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) should be applauded for creating a platform like this for nurses and also, for your committed activism towards the improvement of the professional and socio-economic conditions of nurses in our country.
Today’s theme is “Delivering Quality Care”. In line with this theme, government has been working tirelessly to ensure that we achieve our objective of a quality healthcare system.
One of the greatest challenges facing health professionals is the rate of change and technical innovation in the health sector. Every year and every moment brings advances in the interventions available to screen for diseases, prevent diseases from developing, make diagnoses, treat conditions, and monitor the progress of disease.
Keeping up with these changes is a daunting task. Also, the sheer volume of information available to nurses is enormous and dealing with this information overload is a serious challenge.
Programme Director, fellow South Africans
It is my belief that nurses who are strongly dedicated to caring for patients, knowledgeable, well trained, committed to continuous quality improvement and secure in their employment, need to be further developed to improve and change with times.
We are aware of the dire conditions that nurses have to work under. According to an Econex health note released in December last year, on average, there are 383 nurses per 100 000 people in South Africa. This indicates that nurses are overworked, which inevitably compromises the quality of healthcare. Worldwide, quality healthcare depends on an adequate supply of qualified nursing personnel.
We should all welcome the pronouncement by our President Jacob Zuma during the State of the Nation Address last month that the government is going to revitalise 105 nursing colleges. This will go a long way in ensuring that we increase the number of qualified nurses in the province to boost and lessen the pressure on the health system.
We understand that the shortage of nurses is primarily attributed to numerous factors such as poor working conditions, low remuneration levels, emigration, increase in chronic illnesses, as well as the burden of increased demand for care and service.
In our five year programme of action, the Gauteng Provincial Government has come up with a number of initiatives, including a turnaround strategy to revitalise clinics and hospitals, reduce long queues and improve the availability of essential drugs and medical equipment. At all levels of the healthcare system, we have made strategic commitment to recruit and train more health professionals, fill vacant posts, and improve working conditions of all health professional especially the nurses.
As you deliberate in you discussions today, I would appeal to all the nurses here today to commit to Batho Pele and the Patients' Rights Charter. Your commitment must also mean that you will not tolerate to have within your ranks any member who violates patients' rights and make a mockery of our adherence to the Batho Pele principles and the vows of Florence Nightingale.
You must be worried about the negative perception that ordinary people have about health workers, especially nurses. Rightly or wrongly, some of our people's perception of nurses is largely negative. The power to change this is within us. I hope that this conference will help to deal with perceptions that our people have about you.
Through our own practical actions, we must strive to project a positive image of this noble profession. We must embark on a concerted effort to transform the public image of our members. They must be seen to be polite, humane and dedicated to their work.
We have also noted with concern, the issue of moonlighting amongst our nurses. Nurses who are employed to work in public health facilities must make a choice whether they want to remain in the public health sector or they want to moonlight. Our main concern is that this practice results in nurses not giving their best when on duty in public health facilities.
Ladies and gentlemen,
The stalwarts of the nursing profession like Florence Nightingale, Cecilia Makiwane, Adelaide Tambo, Albertina Sisulu and many others laid a good foundation of providing selfless nursing care to the poor. They put the interests of patients first. They were easily identifiable as nurses because of how they conducted themselves while at work and also in the community. It is therefore incumbent upon us to continue to respect this legacy.
I wish to congratulate hundreds of nurses across the provinces whom, by their own conduct and performance, continue to epitomise the true spirit of the nursing profession.
Many of them continue to go beyond the call of duty to deliver quality healthcare to their fellow citizens. Their commitment, dedication and personal sacrifices continue to inspire all of us.
For them nursing remains primarily a calling rather than a lucrative career. Passion for their work counts more than the material benefits it brings. They continue to help, in their own small way, to strengthen the community's confidence in the profession and our health institutions.
For many years the nursing profession has occupied the moral high ground among the majority of our people because of the commitment, selflessness and the preparedness of most nurses to go the extra mile to ensure the well-being of their patients. The nation is proud of you.
Many of you would know how you become so attached to the patients that when some of them pass on you have felt the same pain as those close to the departed.
I wish you well in your deliberations in the next three days. You must have fruitful discussions and come out with strategies to improve and advance the interests of the nursing professional.
God Bless Africa!
For further information please contact:
Dumisani Zulu
Cell: 082 602 3532
Source: Gauteng Provincial Government
