16 Dec 2014

The Ministry of Health has undertaken to improve its relations with the Botswana Nurses Union (BONU) as a strategic partner on some of the challenges nurses face in Botswana.

Speaking at a BONU annual general conference in Kasane recently, Assistant Minister of Health, Dr Alfred Madigele, said that would prevent unnecessary delays or conflicts in dealing with nursing matters.

Dr Madigele said upgrading of Kasane Primary Hospital should be a priority since it was in a tourist hub  He advised nurses to improve their attitude if they were to be recognised as a special institution which could be run like such institutions as Botswana Defence Force and Botswana Police Services.

BONU president, Mr Tebogo Tshenyego, had earlier on expressed concern over the less than cordial relations between the nursing profession and the ministry. “It has been evident enough that our ministry management has been serving nurses as just a pressure group rather than regarding and perceiving them positively,” he noted.

Mr Tshenyego added that the attitude had really impeded progress and as a result, any issue with the ministry had been so difficult to deal with. He noted that lack of accommodation and transport for nurses to and from their homes remained challenges facing the profession.

“We are not given priority as essential service providers when it comes to housing, yet we are the most transferable,” he said. He also noted that as nurses, they felt undermined because doctors were given all the credit and recognition.

The nurses felt that foreign doctors enjoyed more benefits than they did when it came to housing, being afforded cheap government housing while local nurses at times had to rent privately owned houses, which were more expensive.

There were also calls by nurses to have their own director as their numbers were significantly big. Dr Madigele announced that 200 houses would be built in the coming financial year for nurses across the country to address accommodation shortages.

Nurses were advised to dress appropriately in their uniforms as they were a uniformed profession. However, where protective clothes were needed, arrangements to provide such could be made.

That was a sequel to a complaint from one of the nurses about having to wear uniforms throughout their shifts, which exposed their families to infections as they knocked off in the same uniform.

The theme for this year’s conference was Nurse: a Force for Change, a Vital Resource for Health.  It was the second BONU annual general conference.  ENDS