Programme director
Acting Head of Department, Dr Andrew Robinson
Executive Managers of the department
Delegates from the National Department of Health
Heads of our Nursing Colleges
The Nurses and other Officials of the North West Department of Health
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Our vision of realising optimum health for all individuals and communities of our province is slowly and surely gaining momentum. Yes, we are faced with serious challenges before us but I can assure you of the fact that the ANC led government is now more than ever before determined to turn the tide on poor health services, lack of access to health services, diseases and many other structural problems we face as a country. The Nurses Summit which the National Health Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi has planned later this month is a platform created to prepare the nurses for the imminent new health dispensation.
The ANC led government inherited a very uneven, unregulated and a cosmetic health system from the apartheid administration. Such a system was never sustainable and was always leaning towards benefiting only the rich of which the poorest of our communities remained marginalised and restricted with no access to quality healthcare services.
The National Health Act 61 of 2003 has laid a solid foundation for our course. We are therefore re-engineering health care in our country and the nurses are critical and the first valuable resource that we have, to advance our course for a better health for all South Africans. This approach is geared towards strengthening of Primary Health Care (PHC) which is the first point of entry for our communities for access to quality healthcare.
It is thus important for us as we prepare nurses for a revitalised healthcare to note the following:
That:
- Government and the Department of Health is committed to improve nursing education and will continue promote nursing as a career of choice.
- We treat nursing as a profession of respect, dignity and honour.
- We concede that there is a need for quality education and training of nurses and we will continue to do all we can to make this possible.
- In our effort to bring dignity to the nursing profession, we caution the public and prospective student nurses against enrolling with illegal institutions which are not approved by the South African Nursing Council (SANC) and/or training programmes not approved by the SANC intended to qualify a person to practice as a nurse.
- The nursing summit will provide an opportunity for government to listen to nurses and the public and allow for a national reflection on the current status of nursing, key issues and challenges affecting nurses and nursing.
- The health leadership will therefore solicit best ideas from across the nation in addressing key issues and challenges facing nurses and nursing in the country in order to satisfy the aspirations of the members of the public to access to quality services and a better life for all.
We want to promote nursing as a person-centred profession, guided by ordinary good manners, respect for human dignity, compassion, caring attitude, and high degree of commitment to public service as well as a sense of duty. This will call for us to revive the unifying spirit of Ubuntu/Botho, and encourage nurses to continue to live, and put into action the Batho Pele principles.
We are going back to the basics of nursing!
While we do so, we also understand that it is important to improve the working conditions of our nurses. I have said to my managers that I want our nurses to be productive and the best way of getting them to be productive is to improve their working conditions. Our facilities must reflect a healthy environment and they must be seen from outside as places of healing.
I must say this is something we are beginning to pay much attention to and work has already begun to improve the look and feel our clinics where most of our nurses are employed. It is public knowledge that a rural province like ours is running short of health professionals. Adding to this problem has been the fact that most of our graduates desert us for greener pastures elsewhere to the so called developed metropolitans while neglecting their own people and province.
We have now filled majority of all nursing posts in the province with few still vacant. We want to fill all these posts and continue to training more nurses. As honourable Premier has said in the State of the Province Address, the North West province will in the next five years produce 1 592 nurses from government nursing colleges tasked with producing nurses for public health facilities in the province. More than 336 nurses will be released from Mmabatho College of Nursing and Excelsius Colleges of Nursing in Klerksdorp to do mandated community service in rural health facilities this year. The colleges will produce 305 nurses in 2012, 342 nurses in 2013 and 389 nurses in 2014 as per targets of the department.
The department this year awarded 220 bursaries to new recruits at government nursing colleges and North West University to study a four year diploma in Nursing Science and midwifery.
The new nursing professionals upon completion will add value and help address an acute shortage in hospitals, Community Health Centers and clinics especially in remote rural areas. The department need over 2 000 nurses to complete its nursing staff complement and we are pleased that the plan to produce 1 590 professional nurses will eventually curb
shortage.
Allow me to also put it on record that I will not allow any nursing professional who completed a four year nursing diploma at government run nursing college to sit at home unemployed.We need nurses and we want to fight unemployment.
One of the governments biggest successes in health delivery since 1994 has been to increase the facilities available to the people at community level. We have experienced success in getting more services nearer to the people and we have better health information to measure this success.
However, staffing of these clinics is often a problem and we believe as we produce more nurses their priority will be to serve our rural communities with pride and in the process solve our problem as more and more nurses are needed at community level.
Nursing is not an easy profession. It calls for discipline and dedication, whether in terms of adherence to strict working standards or going beyond the call for duty. It does not carry the same profile as pop star or sporting hero but it is a profession where quality and indeed, excellence are prerequisites. I also see Nursing as a challenging and potentially fulfilling profession.
I wish this consultative process towards the National Nursing Summit a success and hope it will inspire all of us to look at all critical areas of nursing that we need to address.
I thank you very much
Enquiries:
Ngwako Motsieng
Tel: 018 387 5830
Cell: 082 964 8838 or 082 097 4970
E-mail:nmotsieng@nwpg.gov.za or nmotsieng@gmail.com
