Hats off to our nurses

THE Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) would like to particularly applaud our nurses for their tireless work in the fight against HIV/Aids, which has resulted in SA recording a further massive decrease in new HIV infections as of end 2014.

The joint United National Programme on HIV/Aids (UNAids) report shows infections fell by 35% between 2000 and 2014, and Aids-related deaths by 41% from 2005 to 2014.

The global response to HIV has averted 30 million new HIV infections and nearly 8 million (7.8 million) Aidsrelated deaths since 2000.

With South Africa accounting for no less than 25% of world HIV/Aids cases, Denosa is proud that of the 15 000 people now on Anti-retroviral treatment (ART) worldwide, more than 3.1 million people are in South Africa, which is a 20.7% portion of people on ART and the largest in the world.

From South Africa’s perspective, this progress has been showing an upward trajectory since 2010 when nurses, who are majority health professionals in the country’s health system, were trained on Nurse-Initiated Management of Antiretroviral Therapy (Nimart) to initiate patients on ART.

Capacity is proving to be the real challenge that will soon stand in the way of nurses achieving more health outcomes for the country.

Nurses work under conditions that are characterised by a severe shortage of personnel. The challenge currently is that many nurses do not enjoy continuous professional development opportunities due to the shortage of nurses. Some even opt to resign from work first to further improve their skills, and re-apply. Madithapo Masemola