DENOSA Student Movement statement on poor intake of nursing students for 2018.

29 January 2018

Normally this time of the year is expected to be that which Nursing Education Institutions across the country are expected to be registering nursing students to train as nurses. This being a process subsequent to recruitment that would have been done by institutions in the previous year. This  inclusive of advertisement of spaces for application and interviews.

It is in 2018 where we have noted some irregularities concerning the intake of nursing students in some provinces and especially nursing colleges. We understand that all recruitment processes were executed, but prospective nursing students were denied access to registration. This follows the Department of Health’s selfish antic to declare that there is no budget allocated for the prospective students for 2018. We have noted with dismay that some of the provinces affected by this poor planning and anarchy by the Department are Gauteng, North West and Northern Cape. 

We do not want to take it as a coincidence that we find ourselves in such a state given the kind of attitude the Department of Health has towards the nursing fraternity. This is informed by the several public spews the Minister, Dr Aaron Motsoaledi, has directed to nursing every time he speaks. 

We also wish to highlight that we have noticed that since the introduction of the bursary system we have seen a significant drop of intake at public nursing colleges. This came despite the promise by the department that the bursary system would better enhance nursing training. Even so one would be bamboozled to think because of less intake conditions around bursaries would improve. We want to clearly state that things have since moved from bad to worse. 

We have also noticed the inhabitable conditions that nursing students are expect to live and study under. There is no maintenance of facilities leading to vast exposure to physical harm and communicable diseases. The most unfortunate part of it all is that there is no medical cover or provisions for these students whose training blatantly holds dual status of student-employee. 

We call on the Office of the Chief Nursing Officer not to be a spectator on the emergence of the aforementioned crises. We hope this office will drive change and correct all the socio-economic ills that lead to high failure rate and subsequently drop-outs. 

The Chief Nursing Officer must also address the continuing non-absorption if community service nurses in aall provinces, as that also points to poor HR planning. 

It must be clearly understood that nursing is the backbone of the Healthcare system. Therefore neglect of nursing training is a direct blow to the health system as there will be no nurses produced.

We are on the verge of ensuring that every deserving prospective student accesses the system. We promise to fight for the nursing students till the last drop, through finding and enforcing permanent solutions on the problems we now face.

We need the prospective students to be patient with us as we try to engage the Department on this. The situation is quite frustrating and disappointing for all of us, but we promise to advocate and lift the burden on the children of the poor and working class.

Issued by Yomelela Mnqabashe, National Secretary, DENOSA Student Movement, 29 January 2018