Shortage of training opportunities for Nurses

By Ilhaam Hoosain
12 October 2007

A Health Systems Trust Conference this week made it apparent that South Africa’s nursing shortage is not due to a lack of interest, but the Health Department's failure to put in place a concrete plan to train nurses.

“It was revealed that there are thousands of young South Africans who would like to be nurses,” says Democratic Alliance spokesperson on health Mike Waters

There are currently 60% nurses over the age of 50. This means within a few years, as these nurses retire, unless new nurses come into the industry, the country will be facing an even bigger crisis than what we have now.

“We have a shortage of over 40 000 in this country. The government should immediately re-open all the colleges that they closed when they took over power in 1994 and to ensure that we have enough people to train these additional students,” says Waters.

There is a massive shortage of people who are able to train nurses, and of acceptable facilities. The conference also revealed that the training that is being provided is of an extremely poor quality.