Issued by: Parliament of the Republic of South Africa
Training curricula for nurses must be overhauled says Dr Manto Tshabalala MP, Chairperson of the National Assembly's Portfolio Committee on Health.
In a keynote speech delivered today at the Institute for Nursing, University of Natal, Dr Tshabalala told her audience of new nursing graduates that health workers have traditionally viewed problems only in their narrowest context.
Speaking in the aftermath of this week's budget announcement of a minimum 7,5% pay award for nursing staff, Dr Tshabalala said it was imperative that the training of health workers be revised and restructured to meet the country's most urgent health priorities.
Improved pay and conditions of service went hand in hand with greater professionalism, she said. The experience of people using the health system, "should be one of caring and compassion."
Dr Tshabalala continued: "Primary Health Care, as an instrument of empowerment, calls for health personnel to go into the community, work with people on their own terms and identify ways in which they can use their own resources for their own benefit.
"As well as the monitoring of health service delivery all health workers must be equipped to be critical and make the relevant recommendations to government.
"The functional and clinical scope of health personnel must be expanded and elaborated to include a wide variety of environmental, cultural, social, economic, and political factors, which affect health."
For more information: Dr ME Tshabalala 031 307 2160 Lynette Sait 021 403 3127