In both health and education sectors on campaigns that aim to resolve the many challenges that may potentially stand in the way of the communities getting access to quality healthcare and members working under unfavourable and unsafe conditions.

Some of the campaigns that DENOSA is embarking on are:

Positive Practice Environments (PPE) campaign:

This campaign calls for a conducive working environment for health workers where there is:

• Safety of workers and patients in the workplace;
• Timeous payment of health workers and suppliers;
• Efficient equipment;
• Sufficient resources;
• Supply of medication;
• Continuous Professional Development opportunities for health workers in the workplace;
• Support of health workers;
• Respect for health workers;

#TimeIsNow campaign

This campaign was executed in 2017 in line with DENOSA’s National Executive Committee (NEC) declaration in December 2016 that 2017 is DENOSA’s Year of The Member. The campaign is about bringing urgent problems in health facilities such as:

• Shortage of workers;
• The slow pace of NHI and lack of involvement of nurses;
• Non-absorption of Community Service Nurses in many facilities despite the shortage;
• Failure to review benefits to health workers such as Danger Allowance, Rural Allowance to include lower category nurses, and OSD among others;
• The broken and non-repaired equipment in facilities which disadvantages nurses;
• Appointment of Chief Nursing Officers in provinces, and staffing up of the nursing directorates and fixing of nursing structure in the departments;
• Re-opening of previously closed nursing colleges countrywide;
• Rejection of the bursary system in nursing education as it has proven to be disastrous in its implementation and has rolled back the progress of producing fully-fledged nursing cadres;

As part of the campaign, DENOSA marched to the Department of Health on 22 February 2017 to deliver a memorandum of demands over these issues. The march also delivered a memorandum of demands to the South African Nursing Council (SANC0 offices in Pretoria on 22 February 2017 to raise the following issues:

• Demand SANC open offices in provinces so that nurses don’t have to travel to Pretoria if they are to get their practicing licences timeously;
• Opening up of the registration period for nurses throughout the year and not only from July to December each year as that creates crisis;
• Making means to ensure that nurses, especially those in the public sector, can pay SANC fees via their PERSAL so that they don’t travel all the way to Pretoria for that;
• Urgent need to appoint the Registrar/CEO at SANC for leadership stability and progress;