The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) is holding its three-day ordinary National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting at its head offices in Pretoria.
The meeting is held in May, which is dedicated globally as the Nurses Month where nurses day celebratory and commemorative events are held throughout the country. The events are also used as platforms for nurses to reflect on the current and future challenges of the nursing profession.
DENOSA has held eight International Nurses Day for nurses in at least eight provinces so far. The organisation was also part of the many provincial, districts and facilities’ commemorative events.
Amongst the issues the NEC will discuss are the current challenges that still hinder access to quality healthcare for many communities and the many hindrances for the majority healthcare professionals to unleash comprehensive care to the end-users due to the many shortages of staff, equipment and resources.
The NEC will also do an assessment on how it asserts itself as an organisation on the daily challenges that nursing cadres face at the hands of both public and private healthcare employers in the workplace, in the form of policy and system glitches, including socio-economic issues that still disadvantage the nursing profession.
The gross shortage of nurses at the country’s healthcare facilities, on the one hand, and the rising number of the unemployed nurses on the other, due to many contracts coming to an end and reduction in provincial budgets, are all coming under the microscope of DENOSA’s highest decision-making structure.
The issue of both community service and post- community service nurses whose absorption still remains a challenge in many corners will also feature prominently at the discussions, just as the deteriorating conditions and lack of continuous professional development opportunities for lower category nurses in the healthcare settings.
The ticking time-bomb in the nursing education sector, particularly the reduced number of students that get enrolled into the new nursing curriculum as the time when more and more nurses are reaching the danger line of being lost to the healthcare service due to retirement will equally feature in the NEC, as will the migration of nurses from South Africa to overseas.
To also feature will be the issue of the looming crisis of caused by shortage of specialist nurses in the country.
The NEC will conclude on Friday 26 May 2023.
