Wednesday, 11 May 2022
PRETORIA – As the world will observe International Nurses Day on Thursday, 12 May 2022, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) will be hosting a hybrid commemoration of this all-important day to majority healthcare professionals in the healthcare sector from the CSIR Convention Centre in Pretoria where the issue of the greatest threat of migration of nurses from low-income countries post-Covid-19, which is sure to hit South Africa heavily, will be under the microscope.
This year’s theme for the International Nurses Day from the International Council of Nurses (ICN) is: “Nurses: A Voice To Lead – Invest in Nursing and Respect Rights to Secure Global Health.”
Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla; DENOSA President, Simon Hlungwani; and ICN Board member for the African region, Andre Gitembagara will all address the thousands of nurses from across provinces who will be joining the commemoration virtually from various healthcare institutions.
A panel discussion on the day will look at the theme and zoom in on the need to strengthen healthcare services by investing in nursing as a majority component of healthcare service to humanity and stress on the need to come up with a staff retention plan for South Africa to avoid a migration tsunami of skilled and experienced nurses to overseas employers. The panel discussion will be discussing the topic: Migration of nurses: The real threat to low-income countries post-COVID-19 – Retention Strategy for South Africa.
As a national nursing association and the only affiliate of ICN representing South Africa in this global nursing body, DENOSA will be hosting the virtual International Nurses Day event as a means to provide a platform and an timeous opportunity for honest reflections and assessment on how far the country is in mitigating against the threat of brain-drain.
The study released in January this year by the International Centre for Nurse Migration, titled Sustain and Retain in 2022 and Beyond, paints a bleak picture of a global nursing workforce shortage that has increased by three million since the COVID-19 pandemic came to the world to a total shortage of 13 million in the next decade if nothing is done to curb the many pushing factors for nurses from low-income countries like gross shortage, underpay, burnout, poor support and continuous professional development opportunities amongst others.
Many studies have been undertaken recently about the extent of challenges in nursing globally, and all the findings thereof point to a world that is heading for a disaster or cul-de-sac, which is likely to lead to a severely compromised quality healthcare.
Members of the media are cordially invited to attend the event whose details are as follows:
DATE: Thursday, 12 May 2022.
VENUE: CSIR Convention Centre, Pretoria.
TIME: 09h00.
CONTACT PERSON: Heather Sam, DENOSA International Relations and Marketing Manager.
Mobile: 072 585 9649.
Or
Tswatswapi Moswane, DENOSA ICT Manager.
Mobile: 072 584 9100.
End
Issued by the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA).
