DENOSA Tshwane and DENOSA National Student Movement to hold joint march over nurses and student nurses’ challenges in Pretoria on 25 November

MEDIA ALERT
Wednesday, 24 November 2021

PRETORIA – The Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) in the region of Tshwane and DENOSA National Student Movement will, on Thursday 25 November 2021, lead throngs of nurses and student nurses in a joint march on the streets of Pretoria to highlight the plights of nurses in facilities around Tshwane as well as the plight of student nurses at nursing colleges and universities in the whole country. Student nurses will be converging from across the nine provinces.

Members of the media are invited to attend the march and report.

The march will commence at Burgers Park, at 09h00, and proceed to FEDSURE Building (Department of Health Tshwane District offices) next to Tramshed Shopping Centre on Francis Baard Street where the first memorandum will be handed over to authorities about the many challenges in clinics under the district of Tshwane.

From there, the march will proceed to the offices of the nursing regulatory body, the South African Nursing Council (SANC), at corner of Leyds and Pretorius streets in Arcadia, where a memorandum will be handed over to authorities on the many challenges and delays in nursing education, which affects student nurses and impacts on the production of nurses and specialist nurses.

Some of the challenges that nurses are faced with in the Tshwane District, which are similar challenges in other districts in the country, include:

• Severe shortage of nurses and working equipment in clinics which affects the quality of healthcare services to communities;
• Continuing water supply interruptions to clinics, which affects the delivery of critical healthcare services in critical areas like trauma/emergency and deliveries;
• Poor safety in clinics, which often leads to attacks and robberies of both healthcare staff and patients;
• Non-opening of Mandisa Clinic in Hamanskraal and Boikhutsong Clinic in Soshanguve;
• Poor adherence to occupational health and safety in clinics (e.g. Boikhutsong Clinic);
• Poor support of healthcare workers;
• Non-translation of nurses according to their specialty; and
• Abuse of nurses by management and Labour Relations Officers (LROs).

For student nurses, the following issues, among many others, will be highlighted during the march:

• The negative impact of the introduction of a bursary system into nursing education on the number of nurses produced as well as the quality of nurses produced due to underfunding problems;
• The delays in the accreditation of nursing education institutions across the country by SANC for them to be able to offer new nursing curriculum and the impact this is having on the drastically low numbers of nurses that the country produces;
• The non-absorption of nurses upon completion of their community service;
• The deteriorating and neglected infrastructure of nursing education institutions that produce the current crop of nursing cadres; and
• Inadequate infrastructure preparedness for online learning as dictated to by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The details of the march are as follows:
DATE: Thursday, 25 November 2021
VENUE: Starts from Burgers Park and proceed to FEDSURE Building, Tshwane House and end at SANC offices.
TIME: commences at 09h00
CONTACT PERSONS:
Mogomotsi Seleke, DENOSA Tshwane Regional Secretary: 082 590 6899
Nathaniel Mabelebele, DENOSA Student Movement National Chairperson: 071 684 1646

End

Issued by DENOSA Tshwane and DENOSA National Student Movement