NEHAWU calls on Gauteng Department of Health to immediately address the issue of student nurses
17 January 2018
The National Education, Health and Allied Workers’ Union [NEHAWU] calls on the Gauteng Department of Health to immediately sort out the issue of recruited student nurses who were supposed to start their training on January 15, 2018.
The department recruited 700 student nurses last year to be trained as part of the 2018 intake. These students received appointment letters last year confirming that they will commence their training programme in 2018. However, last week the students were notified via whatsapp messages that they cannot start with their training as communicated because the department has financial problems. This is an insult to these students who probably resigned from whatever part time jobs they had or had started preparing to be trained as nurses. This reckless act by the department is unacceptable and points to the lack of proper planning by the department of health.
The department needs student nurses so as to address the challenges of service delivery since the health sector has been plagued by understaffing.
This situation takes place at a very unfortunate time when many students are trying to access higher education. As a nation we need to prioritise the education and training of our youth in order to contribute to the skills revolution and safeguard a brighter future for our country.