Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa

 MEDIA INVITATION 

The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in Western Cape will host the provincial 20 year celebration of DENOSA’s existence at the Stone Haven on Vaal on Friday 25 November from 12h00 to 17h00, under the theme: “Celebrating 20 years of unifying nurses”.  

Nurses from all regions in the province will convene in Vaal to assess the impact the organisation has made in the lives of nurses and challenges that still need to be confronted as a matter of urgency. Nurses will also congratulate the nurse who will win the provincial Marilyn Lahana Caring Award for 2016, a nurse that shown best selflessness and total dedication to patient care.

The winner would have been voted for by patients, former patients, community members and fellow colleagues. The Marilyn Lahana Award is a DENOSA annual event that honours the best nurse in provinces and nationally, in collaboration with the Marilyn Lahana Trust. They are named after Marilyn Lahana, a nurse and the person in South Africa to be infected by Ebola when, while on duty, she took care of a patient from Gabon who was admitted at a Johannesburg hospital. She died a few days later on 24 November 1996.           

Members of the media are cordially invited to attend provincial celebration and report.

As a background to the 20 year celebration, DENOSA was launched on 5 December 1996 at the Union Buildings. The first democratically-elected president in South Africa, Nelson Mandela, officially launched the organisation. The national DENOSA 20 year celebration will be held at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria on 5 December, where all nurses from all over the country will converge to celebrate the day. This year’s celebration is held under the theme: “Celebrating 20 years of unifying nurses”.

Details of the event are as follows:

DATE: Friday, 25 November 2016

VENUE:  Stone Haven on Vaal

TIME: 12h00 – 17h00

CONTACT PERSON: Simphiwe Gada, DENOSA Provincial Chairperson in Gauteng. 072 563 1923 

Or

Sibongiseni Delihlazo, DENOSA Communications Manager: 079 875 2663

BACKGROUNDER 

In its 20 years of existence, the organisation has had many successes that are worth celebrating. These include:

• Spear-heading the formation of Southern African Network of Nurses and Midwives (SANNAM) as a regional body for nurses in the SADC region 

• Introduction of uniform allowance for nurses in 2005 at the bargaining council

• Campaigning for the establishment of a Chief Nursing Officer position within the Department of Health since 2006, and the subsequent appointment of the officer in 2014

• Establishment of DENOSA Professional Institute (DPI), to look at professional needs of nurses in the workplace 

• Concluding an agreement on Occupation-Specific Dispensation for nurses at the bargaining chamber in 2007, for proper adjustment of nurses’ salaries according to experience and specialty

• Concluding an agreement on Danger Allowance for nurses in psychiatric facilities  

• Concluding an agreement for professional nurses working in rural areas to receive rural allowance 

• Assisting nurses in the DRC to establish a nursing regulatory body in their country 

• Assisting the Zambian Nurses Organisation to become a nurses union 

• Ongoing case representation for its members 

The organisation is still grappling with many challenges in the profession, which poses a threat in the delivery of quality healthcare to patients by nurses. Some of these challenges, which it continues to deal with head-on, include:

• Urgent need to review the Occupation-Specific Dispensation (OSD) and include nurses that were previously excluded in the current OSD regime 

• Establishment Nursing Directorates in all provinces, proper staffing of those and appointment of Chief Nursing Officers in provinces to spear-head nurse-related issues within health 

• Severe shortage of nurses, which result in burnout of nurses in the public sector facilities, which automatically lead to  negative attitude and compromised quality care 

• The overhaul of HR departments to address the ongoing challenge of non-absorption of community service nurses and post-community service nurses in provinces  

• Lack of safety of health workers in most facilities 

• Inclusion of lower category nurses in benefiting from Rural Allowance 

• Payment of Danger Allowance to nurses in units such as Casualty, TB, and nurses in Community Health Centres and clinics 

• Clear career-pathing for lower category nurses in the time of new nursing curriculum 

• Continuous Professional Development opportunities for all nurses in the workplace

• Proper reconfiguration of Performance Management Development System (PMDS) countrywide, or Staff Performance Management System (SPMS, as is called in Western Cape) to take into account staff shortages in health facilities and negative effect of this on performance of nurses 

End