Date: 26/08/2003
Source: Department of Health
Title: Tshabalala-Msimang: Inauguration of second democratic South African Nursing Council


SPEECH BY THE MINISTER OF HEALTH, DR MANTO TSHABALALA-MSIMANG, AT THE INAUGURATION OF THE SECOND DEMOCRATIC SOUTH AFRICAN NURSING COUNCIL, Pretoria, 26 August 2003

Programme Director,
The President of the Council, Ms K R J France,
Outgoing President, Prof R V Gumbi,
Council members,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.

Allow me to first thank you, Madam President, and the Council for inviting me to participate in this inauguration ceremony of the second democratic Council. This is my second encounter with this newly elected Council. I was invited to address you during your first meeting in June this year. I commend this constant interaction between the Ministry and the Council as indeed a step in the right direction.

Madam President, I will be failing in my duty if I do not thank the outgoing President Prof Gumbi. She has provided leadership during the turbulent period of introducing transformation process within the Nursing Council. Indeed it has not been easy to initiate this process and the Council has achieved a lot under your leadership.

In its effort to set and maintain professional standards, the Council confronted some high profile cases of malpractice such as the Tintswalo and Philadelphia hospitals cases.

Secondly, the Council started implementing the recommendation of the Pick's report in so far as the introduction of the midlevel worker is concerned. Your Council also actively participated in the Task Team we appointed to make recommendations on the transformation of Councils and I am aware that you had started implementing some of these recommendations as well.

Another achievement of the previous Council was the drafting of the new Nursing Bill and hosting of the first forum of African Nursing Councils in line with our dream of an African unity and development.

I hope a comprehensive report on these and other activities have been compiled to assist the new council to build on the progress made and not seek to re-invent the wheel.

Tonight, I would like us to look at the role of the Nursing Council with special emphasis on three areas, which are:

* setting and maintenance of professional standards;
* establishing and monitoring of education and training standards;
* and last but not least, the area of research.

1. Setting and maintenance of professional standards

We say that great leaders are those who lead by examples and practise what they preach. As we assume our positions in the Council, we need to know that we have an added responsibility as professionals in this field to act as role models amongst our peers. Your personal and professional conduct as members of the Council should be beyond reproach.

Secondly, we should run the business of Council in a highly professional manner and based on the principles of good governance. Good governance includes issues of discipline, transparency and accountability, independence and social responsibility.

Disciplinary role of Council normally referred to as Peer review is one of the cornerstones of a profession. A profession is characterised by constant peer review, in other words colleagues within the same profession should be able to apply sanction for malpractice or misconduct.

It is true that that the Labour Relations Act does make provision for disciplinary action and as employers we should not shy away from taking disciplinary action against those who undermine the interest of the public. However, in cases of health professionals, it is also imperative that peers should look into a case of misconduct from a professional point of view.

We therefore need to work together as the Council, employee organisations and the Department of Health to deal with issues of adherence to professional code of conduct. Let us join hands to establish supporting programmes aimed at boosting the moral within the nursing profession. Let us create a moral regeneration environment that should make cases of ill-treatment of clients and negative attitudes towards service delivery something of the past within our profession.

2. Setting and monitoring of the quality of Education and Training

It is the duty of the Council to provide clear guidelines with regard to the expected competencies for each nursing training programme. However, it is important for Council to collaborate with the Department of Health as the main health care provider in creating a common understanding of the type of nurse required.

Time has passed when different institutions worked in silos without acknowledging a common goal of rendering quality-nursing care to our people. The Council should work closely with the Department to ensure that priorities of the Health Sector in this country are captured in the Nursing Training Programmes and curriculum.

Your visits to the educational institutions and related health institutions to monitor quality should add value to the quality of nursing care. It is important that the Provincial Health Departments should participate in such visits as these health authorities have been delegated the role of custodians of health in the different Provinces

Another big challenge for this Council to address is the issue of mushrooming illegal nursing schools. I am told that some of the nurse educators opening those schools are registered with the Council. Do we have mechanisms do deal with this challenge? These fly-by-night schools impact negatively on the economy of our poor parents and communities who pay high fees expecting that their children will be registered as nurses and ultimate find some employment.

We need to look at our system of accreditation and come up with creative ways of ensuring that South Africans are aware or at least have access to information about which institutions are accredited.

3. Research

This lead me to the issue of research and improvement of our systems as the Council. It is important that we apply modern technology in order to improve our information management systems. There is no reason why, for instance, we should not have a database that should always be accessible to a supervisor in Western Cape, Limpopo or any part of this country. This should enable health officials to verify the registration status of any prospective employee or nurse. This database should be able to provide an up-to-date information that we can also use as the Department in our Human Resource planning process.

As the Department, we have already requested all Health Professional Councils to establish registers for foreign health professionals working in this country. It is important for the Ministry to be aware of the numbers and status of foreign health professionals registered with the respective Councils in order to manage the sensitive issue of pouching from other developing countries. Our policy as the health sector is that we do not recruit from fellow African and other countries that are faced with the similar challenge of scarce human resources in the health sector.

In conclusion, I would like to wish you, Madam President, and the rest of the Council well as you assume this important office for the next five years. As a President, your leadership in directing the Council to improve the quality of nursing care in this country is of paramount importance. However, we should all remember that the success of the Council is dependent upon the conduct of each everyone of us as members. Let us work together in protecting the interest of the South African public and retain the dignity and respect of this noble profession.

I thank you all.

Source: Department of Health (http://www.doh.gov.za)