International Nurses Day: South Africa’s nurses burn out amid safety concerns, extreme staffing shortages
The Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA highlights critical challenges like safety concerns, and insufficient training, and calls for a renewed focus on sustaining the nursing workforce.
FILE: A nurse takes a patient's blood pressure in hospital. Picture: Reinart Toerien/EWN
702 and CapeTalk's Africa Melane speaks to the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa's (Denosa) President, Simon Hlungwani, on International Nurses Day 2025.
Listen below:
Burnout, safety on the job and too few nurses being trained...
These are just some of the challenges Denosa says are being faced in the sector.
Monday marks International Nurses Day.
This year’s theme ('Our Nurses. Our Future. Caring for Nurses Strengthens Economies') calls for a renewed focus on the well-being and sustainability of the nursing workforce.
In March, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the union and expressed his gratitude for the role nurses played during the COVID-19 pandemic.
But, is the government taking the nursing profession seriously?
Hlungwani says more needs to be done to ensure the sustainability of the workforce.
"More than 47% of nurses are going to retire in the next 15 years, yet we are training at a pace of replacing those by just 1.1%"
- Simon Hlungwani, President - DENOSA
"In just 15 years, there'll be way fewer nurses to take care of some of us."
- Simon Hlungwani, President - DENOSA
He adds that South Africa is facing a critical shortage of nurses, especially in bedside care, and that outdated policies and poor working conditions are pushing the profession to a breaking point.
"We have a high shortage of nurses, which leads to burnout."
- Simon Hlungwani, President - DENOSA
"In some of the big hospitals... instead of nurses taking their days off to rest, they are being requested to come back to work and cover a shift because there is not enough to man a particular shift."
- Simon Hlungwani, President - DENOSA
Safety of nursing staff is also a concern, says Hlungwani.
"There are many cases of nurses being raped, nurses being robbed in facilities in our country."
- Simon Hlungwani, President - DENOSA
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