STOP UNDERINVESTING IN EXISTING PROFESSIONAL NURSES

It has come to our attention that public hospitals in South Africa are asking professional nurses to register for postgraduate studies such as the Postgraduate Diploma in Nephrology Nursing Science (1-year course), offered at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. However, nurses are told to pay from their own pockets for a qualification that will not only benefit them but also the hospitals in which they work at as well as the patients they will nurse and the general efficient functioning of the public healthcare sector.

The healthcare sector is in crisis in part due to government's lack of investment in existing nurses, as well as hospital administrations' mismanagement of funds and/or misallocation of funds. Investing in nurses' further education will result in a happier and healthier work environment and will result in greater worker satisfaction which will translate to better care for patients.
We ask that the hospital management and government acknowledge the funding of nurses' further education as a social investment, not as a cost. As it is, the public healthcare sector is seeking to retain as many of its nurses as possible and not lose any more to the private sector and brain drain. We ask that you invest in existing nurses, thereby decreasing the necessity of outsourcing specialists from outside of the country.