Celebrating 27 years of uniting nurses

DENOSA National Gender Committee convenes in Pretoria.

The DENOSA National Gender Committee (NGC) convened a two-day meeting at the DENOSA Head Offices in Pretoria between 12 and 13 June, where gender-related issues were the main focus.

The NGC is attended by provincial leaders of Gender Structures as well as some representatives from the DENOSA National Executive Committee (NEC).

The meeting discussed the pressing issues of frequent attacks of healthcare workers both inside and outside the workplace.

The recent spate of attacks and brutal killings of nurses and other healthcare workers has caused a serious concern over the safety of healthcare workers and patients in healthcare facilities.

The endless and vicious attacks have seen nurses falling victims in various provinces, with few tangible interventions from the employer to safeguard the nurses. Provinces gave reports of chilling incidents where perpetrators gain easy access to the workplace as a result of poor security measures and attack and rob healthcare workers.

The meeting also did a thorough reflection on the important role of Forensic Nurses in a society like South Africa which is besieged with high levels of Gender-Based Violence and Femicide (GBV+F).

The NGC highlighted the gross shortage of the forensic nursing skill and stressed the urgent need for the Forensic Nursing specialty to be recognised as one so that there could be sufficient numbers of nurses enroling for it to help in managing the GBV+F cases in healthcare facilities. More and and more patients who get admitted into healthcare facilities are victims of GBV+F, with very forensic nurses in facilities.

The meeting highlighted the importance of making use of the various significant calendar days to raise awareness amongst communities about issues of gender as a way to minimize the high rate of GBV+F countrywide.

The NGC resolved to spearhead both provincial and national activity plans on gender issues.

Organisationally, the NGC discussed the governance issues on gender in the form of policy intervention and mechanisms to guide the organisation on processes to manage and handle gender issues.

Leave a Comment