Master of ceremonies
The Head of Department, Dr Lydia Sebego
Executive managers of the department
The college principal and the academic staff
The Council of Excelsior's College of Nursing
Academics from different institutions of learning
Officials of the department
The South African Nursing Council
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa
Our graduate nurses
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Master of ceremonies, allow me to start by congratulating the college for yet again producing this crop of graduate nurses who are so desperately needed by the country and especially a disadvantaged province like ours.
Congratulations to the college, the principal, the academic staff and the College Council for a job well done. Congratulations also to our graduate nurses who studied hard for the duration of their stay in the college. This occasion is symbolic of a great achievement that the college, the department and the province have attained. Well done!
Ladies and gentlemen, today we talk of great achievement as if there were never any challenges before us. We all know that we faced a lot of challenges and unfavourable conditions before we could get to where we are today.
I wish to emphasise to the graduates the importance of patience and perseverance. The Book of James, chapter one talks of perseverance as something that we must endure. It says "perseverance must finish its course so that we may be mature".
An Irish born British Academic and a Novelist by the name of Clive Staples Lewis commonly referred to as CS Lewis who lived between 1898 and 1963 once said: "the only people who achieve much are those who want knowledge so badly that they seek it while the conditions are still unfavourable. Favourable conditions never come".
I draw from these encouraging words of wisdom because these days our learners never stop demanding and complaining. Regardless of the effort we make to try and make their learning environment favourable and regardless of the limited resources we have at our disposal, it is never enough to please them.
It’s now almost two months that we have been held at ransom by your fellow nursing students at the Mmabatho College of Nursing and I must say I am really disappointed by their conduct which is tarnishing the image and integrity of the nursing profession.
We used to think of the nursing as a highly regarded profession, with high integrity, with values and ethics that must be adhered to at all times. Now, I wonder if the kind of nurses we produce these days will not further tarnish the image of this once respected profession.
No doubt, the kind of learners who disrespect their elders will not add any value to this profession. These are the kind of learners who one day will lead the department further into endless cases of negligence and disrespect our patients.
Let me highlight and emphasise on this point. The Department of Health is the custodian of the nursing profession. We are responsible for training nurses and for hiring them.
I therefore must put it to our colleges; time has come for us to make sure that we recruit the right people for the profession. Those that do not belong to this profession must be flushed out of the system. It is our responsibility to defend the integrity and image of the nursing profession.
Anyone who wants to be a nurse must from now on be thoroughly screened and the interview process must take into account all forms of behaviour and qualities required for this profession.
I highly respect and promote this profession. Our country led the world in the establishment of nursing as a profession by being the first to attain statutory recognition when it obtained state registration for nurses under an Act of Parliament in 1891.
One of the contributors to the development of the nursing profession at the time was Dr John Tremble who believed that the health of people depended on three groups of professionals, which were closely entwined. He named these professionals as doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
Dr Tremble dedicated much of his time and effort to encourage nurses to establish their own nursing association and in 1915 in the South African nursing record; he admonished nurses, "not to be content to be merely ordinary”.
He said, if you give in to slackness you give in to carelessness and you set your country back so much. If you do not push it on, you push it back, as there is no such thing as standing still.
He encouraged nurses to set their own parameters of practice to move beyond the role of handmaiden to the doctor as he saw the three professions as entwined, a trinity and an equal partnership.
Our government now more than ever sees it important to make the training of nurses more comprehensive and community based. The four year curriculum that we introduced sometime back has established a solid basis of all nurses training.
We are beginning to produce nurses that are oriented towards the needs of the community and that are capable of community based nursing. This will assist our community healthcare programmes, as these nurses will be of great help in communities and clinics of disadvantaged areas.
I call upon the South African Nursing Council, the nurse educators and the leaders within the profession to do their best in preparing our nurses adequately for the role they need to play in the new health dispensation.
With many incurable diseases that we face today, an even much difficult battle lies ahead. Let us be prepared.
One of government's 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 to the people and we have better health information to measure this success. However, staffing of these clinics is often a problem.
So it is important for our graduates to understand that they are needed in their own communities more than they are needed in more developed cities. I hope they know better the conditions in their communities and will no doubt want to plough back.
To the graduates, I wish you all the best in your career; you have chosen the right profession. Be proud of it. Be ready to be of service to your nation and community.
I thank you.
