With International Nurses Day celebrated on Friday, Daily News interviewed nurses from four public hospitals in Durban, namely RK Khan Hospital, King Dinuzulu Hospital, Prince Mshiyeni Hospital and Addington Hospital, about their working conditions.
The picture that emerged from all four hospitals was uniformly grim. Among the comments made were the following:
- Patients victimise and abuse us.
- Four nurses have to attend to more than 100 people. It’s draining and the Department of Health doesn’t seem to find a solution to the staffing problem.
- To say I am celebrating International Nurses Day would be a lie because people don’t respect us the way nurses used to be respected, due to the appalling conditions we work under.
- The perception that nurses can perform miracles is demotivating at times and when a person is discharged, they don’t even say ‘thank you’.
- Nurses have to deal with almost 200 patients a day and some have to do the work of porters because of shortages.
- The shortage of staff is getting worse. Some posts have not been filled for more than a year.
- We attend to hundreds of patients every day and are really starting to feel the pressure.
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA (Denosa) said they had received hundreds of complaints from nurses in the public health-care system.
Read this report in full at Daily News
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