By: Vuyo Cebekhulu
The whole world celebrated International Nurses Day on the 12th of May. The Health and Allied Workers Indaba Trade Union (HAITU) said that the nurses are going through a lot at the government hospitals in South Africa.
President of HAITU, Mr. Rich Sicina commented,” all the parliament members and government workers must not have medical aid so that they would know the hardness faced by nurses”, he said. He also raised that the famous Florence Nightingale, the founder of modern nursing is probably turning in the graves when she sees the condition of the nurses they are facing.
“We will not celebrate this day because there is no change. We tell the ministers that we
are under pressure, but they do nothing to show that they hear our cries. Even now it is hard to work with patients because they insult the nurses. It is not safe in hospitals because there is a lot that is not going accordingly,” said Sicina.
Nurses in government hospitals are frequently at risk of workplace violence, including verbal and physical abuse from patients and their families. The lack of security measures in many hospitals leaves nurses vulnerable, creating an unsafe work environment. Government hospitals often struggle with limited resources, including essential medical supplies and equipment. Nurses are forced to improvise, working with outdated or insufficient resources, which can hinder their ability to provide effective care.
“It is hard that in government hospitals there is not enough working material, even the health workers are not employed recently because the government says there is no money. I do not see the reason to celebrate this day because the nurses are struggling,” said Sicina.
Despite their crucial role, nurses and government hospitals often receive low wages compared to their counterparts in private institutions. This financial strain is compounded by poor working conditions, including inadequate facilities and insufficient support from management.
Mr. Sicina also included that the nurses are not paid properly whereby they can not take their children to the top schools, they can not buy houses too. He also mentioned that the government does not employ the nurses, that means most of them are being undermined by the labour brokers.
Thembi Luthuli who is a health worker commented, “problems faced by health workers in hospitals is that there is a shortage of staff, shortage of PPE, patient medication, and receiving low salary, and working under pressure. Nurses work under pressure because even Community Health Workers work under pressure, they do not have PPE’s and they do not receive the salary that is suitable for them when they are the face of the department.”
“Health workers face many challenges when they enter households and find traumatizing things, we end up having stress, depression, anxiety, and burnout where we get no help from. We do not have protection although we work under department of health, they do not provide us with PPE’s,” she said.
The emotional toll o dealing with critically ill patients, witnessing suffering, and sometimes facing the loss of life can be overwhelming. Without adequate psychological support and counseling services, nurses and health workers often struggle to cope with the emotional demands of their job.
