Caregivers benefit from government TLC

KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health  has empowered nearly 200 caregivers through a training programme to enable them to join the formal economy as salaried workers.entrepreneurs with disabilities.

For years she was a community caregiver but thanks to a government training programme, Busisiwe Mbambo is now a newly qualified nurse.

 “I have served for six years as a community caregiver,
 earning stipends. I’m glad I persevered. If I gave up along the way, I would not be here today. As a nurse, I am now able to provide for my family and give my children a quality education. We are very grateful to the KZN Department of Health for investing in us and giving us an opportunity,” said a teary Mbambo during her graduation ceremony.

Mbambo and 178 other caregivers who were selected for upskilling were among 1 461 nurses from various KZN nursing colleges who graduated in October.

The nurses were trained to address the shortage of scare skills in the health sector, including advanced midwifery, orthopedics nursing science, operating theatre technique, critical care nursing, child care nursing science, ophthalmic nursing and psychiatric nursing.

Speaking at the graduation ceremony, KZN MEC for Health Dr Sibongiseni Dhlomo said nurses play an important role in improving the lives of people in the province.

He said without the commitment and hard work of nurses, KZN would not have managed to enroll more than 1.3 million people on anti-retroviral
therapy nor accelerated the prevention of mother to child transmission of HIV from 20 percent in 2008 (which amounted to 800 000 mothers countrywide passing HIV onto their newborn children each year) to the current 1.2 percent.

MEC Dhlomo urged all nurses in the province to go back to basics and always uphold the Nurses Pledge when dealing with
patients and the public at large.

"There are nurses in the community who spoil the name of the profession. As nurses, it is not good enough to have a good attitude from morning until lunchtime and then change, and become something else,” he said.