Nurse left in limbo

I WRITE as a nursing sister with 34 years of experience.

I consider myself to be a responsible, caring and committed member of the profession.

Since my graduation, I have consistently tried to choose employment that has maximum reach within vulnerable communities, to honour the privilege of being able to put myself through university.

I subscribe to the philosophy that the nursing profession obviously needs a representative and regulatory organisation, and that we, as practitioners, have resultant consequent personal responsibilities to that same South African Nursing Council (SANC).

However, in the past four years I have found the council to be singularly unapproachable, difficult to access and seemingly lacking in interest.

I have numerous e-mails, vain attempts at telephonic contact, and even a registered letter that did not even get a reply, to substantiate this opinion.

I would have thought that, given the general concern about nursing-care standards, the situation would be one of support, more approachable, and of assistance to engage all nursing practitioners, and less punitive – a winwin for all stakeholders.

One of my deepest concerns, of many, revolves around the lack of communication regarding de-registration, which I consider to reflect on my personal integrity.

The wording states : “Please note that you are not permitted to practise nursing of any nature until such time as your restoration to the register/roll has been finalised”, for reasons too lengthy to outline here, and yet I have not even been informed that situation exists.

If you were to ask why I could not deal with the issue with the council internally, it is simply because I no longer know how to.

I long to hear the experiences of other nurses of all levels in South Africa, and thus am asking whether you would consider publishing this, in the hope of written responses from others dealing with the SANC. Anonymous Cape Town