21 Aug 2016

The Minister of Health, Ms Dorcas Makgato, has urged nurses to continue upholding integrity of the nursing profession.

Speaking at the national nurses day in Letlhakane on August 18, she said the day was one of the most important dates in the nursing calendar as they commemorate the founder of the modern nursing Florence Nightingale.

She said the day celebrated success and achievement by nurses, adding that rewarding excellence was one ways of motivating employees to work even harder to maintain high standard.

Ms Makgato said her concern was that while some nurses strive for professional excellence towards providing quality care, some were still failing in their ethical and professional obligations.

She urged those who have not yet come on board, to pull up their socks towards improving the health sector and embrace transformation of hospitals from being death houses to sanctuaries of care.

She noted that the nursing leadership structure should be responsible for ensuring that nursing in Botswana served its purpose by protecting the interest of the public.

The minister said non-adherence to the set standards and lack of professionalism by some nurses continued to cost the ministry a lot of money from litigations.

Ms Makgato said the resilience of the any health care system was evidence of a resilient workforce emphasizing that nursing as the backbone of any health care system cannot go unnoticed.

She also said with nursing resilience the Botswana health care system has transformed with noticeable achievements saying indeed their courage and dedication at times during difficult and stressful time worthy to be praised.

The minister said the success of most health programmes were indebted to the commitment of the nursing workforce. 

She also said the rise of non-communicable disease was now a leading cause of mortalities worldwide, and Botswana is no exception.

“Therefore the Ministry of Health has adopted a paradigm shift of moving from curative to prevention hence prevention is their cornerstone for tackling non-communicable disease,” she said.

Ms Makgato assured them of her support and reiterate that the ministry leadership are working around the clock to improve their welfare.

On her part the retired nurses chairperson Ms Joyce Tamocha said their concern was that the nurses were seen functioning only in public health facilities and it was difficult in some independent practice.

Ms Tamocha noted that it was time to nurses ran their own clinics because they were safe practitioners as they were able to work under one roof holding different specialties. Ends