Dept to increase nursing staff

2008-01-20 11:59

Johannesburg - Close to 2 000 nurses have been deployed to under-served areas across the country since the start of the year, the Department of Health said on Saturday.

In a statement, the department said it would also open additional nursing colleges to increase the supply of nursing staff.

"This is an effort to strengthen nursing services as the backbone of health care delivery in the country," the department said.

The nurses would be the last group of health professionals to do community service.

The department said a total of 1 951 nurses who completed the four-year nursing diploma or degree last year had been allocated for their one-year community service in all nine provinces.

The other 65 nurses were allocated to the South African Military Health Service.

A total of 3 826 health professionals, which included doctors, dentists and radiographers had been deployed to various facilities for community service as well as internship programmes.

The department said it also planned to re-open nursing schools and colleges following an audit of all nursing colleges, which identified the specific needs in different nursing colleges and the challenges they faced.

"The strategy to reopen nursing colleges, coupled with improving salaries of nurse educators by means of the recently approved process of Occupational Specific Dispensation (OSD), is envisaged to attract nurses and nurse educators in particular, back into the nursing profession."

Meanwhile, Coronation and Bonalesedi Nursing Colleges in Gauteng were expected to accommodate at least 250 post-basic nursing students as soon as renovations were completed.

It was expected that more student nurses would be admitted for training once the building of two new structures was completed at Sekhukhune and the Waterberg District in Limpopo.

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health currently has nearly 5 000 nurses in different programmes and plans to increase the number of nursing students doing the bridging courses.

The Mpumalanga Department of Health increased the number of nursing students by 230 and space has been made available at the Elijah Mango College of Education to train more nurses.

"Increasing the supply of qualified nurses is part of the strategic framework for the human resources health plan launched in 2006.

"It is expected to impact positively in improving the quality care for the people of South Africa, said the department.

- SAPA