Government tackles nursing-training snag
The government has temporarily waived one of many bureaucratic hurdles facing public nursing colleges, which need approval from several agencies before they can begin training nurses for new qualifications that start in January.
Colleges may not without the necessary approvals take in any new students as they are prohibited from continuing with the old qualifications after the end of 2019.
As time runs out for recruiting new students, sector players fear the 2020 intake hangs in the balance, with potentially devastating implications.
Health minister Zweli Mkhize and higher education, science and technology minister Blade Nzimande said on Thursday they had agreed that SA’s 10 public nursing colleges, providing the lion’s share of nursing education, can begin offering the new qualifications in January, pending their registration as institutions of higher education.
The development offers the colleges relief from a requirement for switching to the new qualifications. But like all nursing education institutions they also require accreditation from three other agencies the SA Nursing Council, the Council for Higher Education, and the SA Qualifications Authority before they can switch to the new qualifications.
At this stage, no public college was accredited by the SA Nursing Council, its acting CEO, Jeanneth Nxumalo, said on Thursday. A list of accredited public nursing colleges would be published by mid-November. This would leave enough time for the colleges to recruit students for the 2020 intake, she said.
Mkhize and Nzimande issued a statement, saying they were confident that all the public nursing colleges would be ready to admit a new cohort of students in 2020.
“Nursing colleges are the primary platform for nursing education and training in our country. They are pivotal for producing nurses to support our public health sector. This is even more imperative in the wake of the planned introduction of the National Health Insurance.”
The development came hard on the heels of an SA Nursing Council announcement that it has accredited seven universities and 13 private nursing colleges to teach the new qualifications. While the accreditation of the seven universities was good news, the number of students they are permitted to admit in 2020 to study for a bachelor of nursing qualification appeared to fall short of SA’s needs, said Wits nursing lecturer Sue Armstrong.
The accredited universities, which do not include Wits, will be able to admit altogether 565 students for their bachelor of nursing programmes, producing professional nurses.
The four-year programme is required for nurses who want to specialise, so training too few students will have a knock-on effect on the future production of specialist nurses, which are already in short supply, she said.
Western Cape director of nursing Tendani Mabuda said that the province was planning one last intake of students on the legacy qualifications in November, to try to avoid any possible delays at the SA Nursing Council.
Private hospital group Mediclinic, which received accreditation for two nursing training institutions in Gauteng, said it was disappointed that the number of approved places was less than it had requested. Private nursing education institutions have been accredited to offer qualifications only for auxiliary nurses and general nurses.
MKHIZE AND NZIMANDE CONFIDENT ALL PUBLIC NURSING COLLEGES WILL BE READY FOR NEW STUDENTS