NEHAWU NURSES’ FORUM BULLETIN BUILDING STRONG WORKPLACE ORGANISATION, CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS AND INTERNATIONALISM

Transcription

October2014 | www.nehawu.org.za
October 2014 | www.nehawu.org.za
NEHAWU
NURSES’ FORUM BULLETIN
NEHAWU Nurses’ Forum Bulletin
BUILDING STRONG
WORKPLACE
CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS
BUILDING
STRONG WORKPLACEORGANISATION,
ORGANISATION, CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS
AND INTERNATIONALISM AND INTERNATIONALISM
contents
Message from NEHAWU General Secretary
01
National Nurses’ Forum 02
Activities of the Nurses’ Forum
03
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Written by Policy Development Unit, Produced by Communications.
BUILDING STRONG WORKPLACE ORGANISATION, CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS AND INTERNATIONALISM
NEHAWU National Office Bearers, from left to right. President - Comrade Mzwandile Michael Makwayiba, 1st Deputy PresidentComrade Michael Shingange, 2nd Deputy President - Comrade Nyameka Macanda, National Treasurer - Comrade Kgomotso
Makhupola, General Secretary - Comrade Bereng Soke & Deputy General Secretary - Comrade Zola Saphetha.
MESSAGE FROM NEHAWU GENERAL SECRETARY
Comrades
Kindly receive our profound revolutionary greetings on
behalf of the national office bearers. Indeed, we are very
excited to issue this first bulletin which is about matters
and plight of nurses and the role to be played by the union
therefore in improving their situation and creating better
working conditions.
NEHAWU is strategically located in the public health to
amongst others work jointly with the Department of
Health and other progressive organisations to transform
the healthcare system including improving services to
the people of South Africa the sector serve. The union, for
many years, has championed many campaigns in the sector
such as the introduction of National Health Insurance (NHI)
and improving the nursing fraternity in many fronts, etc.
Indeed, the National Health Insurance is a transformative
project that ensures a universal access for everyone in order
to meaningfully deliver an improved quality of life which
restores the dignity of the poor. NHI provides universal,
free quality public health care for all and for this to happen
the public sector must be built to become the main and
ultimately sole provider of healthcare services, hence the
union supports the Primary Healthcare Approach.
The union recognises that nurses are a backbone of our
health services hence its resolution to establish the Nurses
Forums across the layers of its structures with an aim to
create a platform for nurses in order to discuss and share
experiences on daily struggles in delivering health services.
The union therefore is obligated to address all concerns
of its members including matters previously considered
professional issues. The Nurses Forum is a platform to ensure
that the union addresses all issues pertaining to nursing
fraternity .
This bulletin is aimed at updating members of the union on
the work done thus far since the inception of Nurses Forums
and campaigns thereof. The union working with its sister
union in London, UNISON, will produce relevant training
and campaign materials including a Nurses Magazine to
be published quarterly. The magazine will also serve as a
voice and platform for the nurses and through our signed
memorandum with UNISON the union will send delegations
periodically as part of its exchange programme to United
Kingdom for further training and experience sharing.
In this regard, we want to welcome the nursing fraternity
to this first nurses’ bulletin and kindly invite all members to
NEHAWU General Secretary - Comrade Bereng Soke
use this bulletin as a form of sharing experiences and stories
including interacting with the national leadership of the
union on matters pertaining to the profession and other
health related matters.
Aluta Continua.
Establishment of the Nurses Forums
The 9th National Congress called for the rebuilding of
professional forums in the union including the Nurses
Forum towards building strong and vibrant branches that
are politically conscious.
The union has successfully established Nurses Forums in all
our branches and elected coordinators. This process was
followed by the establishment of Regional Nurses Forums
with elected regional coordinators and subsequently to
all 9 provinces elected from regional Nurses coordinators.
Each provincial nurse’s forum has an elected provincial
coordinator and this process culminated to the launch of
the National Nurses Forum. The national nurses coordinator
was elected from provincial coordinators and is introduced
in this bulletin. In this regard, we introduce to you members
of the National Nurses Forum with its elected co-coordinator
at the helm. It must be mentioned that the National Nurses
Forum is constituted by provincial co-oridinators and
members of the health subcommittee who are nurses by
profession.
*
NATIONAL NURSES FORUM MEMBERS
Mzwandile Makwayiba - NEHAWU President
Nyameka Macanda - NEHAWU 2nd Deputy President
Ndoyisile Sekwati - National Co-Ordinator
Nomafengu Siyo-Sokutu - EC Provincial Co-ordinator
Nobukhosi Xulu - KZN Provincial Co-ordinator
Anna Mabirimisa - LMP Provincial Co-ordinator
Samuel Ntidisang - NC Provincial Co-ordinator
Gertrude Gininda - MP Provincial C0-ordinator
Dipuo Wesi - FS Provincial Co-ordinator
Khathutshelo Ralushai - GP Provincial Co-oridnator
Namelang Isaac- NW Provincial Co-ordinator
Margaret Dlamini - NHSC
Montseng Tsiu - NHSC
Sylvia Mohlahlo - NHSC
Tshegofatso Moralo - National Organiser (Public Health)
Solly Legodi - National Organiser (Private Health)
Sheila Barsel - Health Reseacher
December Mavuso - Head of OSEC
01
National Nurses’ Forum
Following the election of the provincial co-ordinators, a
workshop was convened for all members of the national
nurse’s forum in 2013. The purpose of that workshop was
to induct members about their roles and responsibilities,
identify challenges and also develop a comprehensive
programme of action aimed at the transformation of
health sector as an integral part of the more radical
second phase of transition. Through this programme
of actionthe union intends to disseminate information
about key current policies, programmes and projects that
are underway in the health sector.
The induction workshop commenced with a discussion
and input on the Primary Health Care Approach (PHCA).
Participants spoke on the challenges of implementing the
PHCA in reality at their workplaces because of insufficient
human resource capacity in terms of numbers and skills,
and structures for intersectoral collaboration to overcome
problems related to social determinants of health (e.g.
poverty, food security, water, sanitation, education,
housing and infrastructure) were not always in place. The
forum expressed strong support for the health reforms
pertaining to the Re-engineering of Primary Health Care
(PHC) and confirmed the need to assist in monitoring the
roll out of this programme.
This was followed by a presentation and discussion on the
National Health Insurance (NHI), Re-engineering of PHC
and NEHAWU’s approach to the NHI. Questions related
to the NHI pilot sites raised issues for further discussion
and action. However, key issues raised were the need to
02
raise awareness amongst NEHAWU members and
communities of the NHI; the need to restructure
nursing education so that the curricula is focused
on the PHCA, NHI and full integration of Community
Health Workers (CHWs) into the services.
On the South African Nursing Council, the
workshop overwhelmingly called for a complete
transformation of the Nursing Council, including
the method of nominations or appointments to
the Council, and for the Council to proactively
support curriculum transformation. The nurses
are trained to work in hospitals and not at primary
level and in communities. Therefore, nurses must
be at the forefront in curricula review of all health
professionals so that they can lead inter professional
practice at facility and community level.
The workshop received a presentation from the
Director General of the Department of Health on the
National Strategic Plan for Nurse Education, Training
and Practice. Key issues which were raised by Forum
members are as follows:i)
Agreement on nurses’ uniforms;
ii)
The need to strengthen relations with the
department as an important union organising
nurses;
iii) The difficult conditions of the working
environment;
iv) The negative impact of nurses engaging in
remuneration outside the public service on the
level of service delivery,
v)
The importance of CHWs being accepted and
integrated into the health system without
losing their accountability to the communities
in which they work.
Focusing on the need for action, the workshop
agreed on the roles and responsibilities of
the national and provincial nursing forums. In
developing a strategy for organising nurses, groups
looked at strategies for recruiting nurses and CHWs
into NEHAWU; the National Department of Health
Strategic Plan on Nursing Education, Training and
Practice; and transforming the Nursing Council
and Hospital/Clinic Boards while developing active
nursing forums in branches.
Activities of the Nurses’ Forum
The Nurses Forums as a substructure of the national
executive committee is expected to meet atleast
four times a year. The National Nurses Forum held
two meetings since the beginning of this year on
the 18th March and 11th July 2014.
The recent meeting of July 2014 was chaired and
opened by the 2nd Deputy President, comrade
Nyameka Macanda. In her opening remarks she
reminded comrades about the important role of
the Nurses Forum as nurses are working to under
difficult conditions. She highlighted the security
of the nurses and health workers in general as a
challenge that must be tackled. As nurses we must
monitor and participate in the implementation of
NHI. The union is concerned that NHI project in the
pilot sites is not going well. She ended by calling on
the members to recruit nurses into the union.
The President, Cde Mzwandile Michael Mkwayiba,
addressed the meeting of 11 July and alluded to
the following; It was important that nurses find the
balance between their professionalism and their
class status as nurses. He said that nurses can never
succeed in their struggles without the solidarity of
all other workers.
Some nurses believe that their profession can help
them to escape their class exploitation, and further
indicated that the nurse’s forum coordinators must
be taken to the political school to sharpen their class
consciousness working with WFTU.
He further pointed out that the nurse auxiliaries
(Enrolled Nurse Assistants (ENAs)), who in fact,
help to train the professional nurses when they are
students, are then exploited by those very same
professional nurses who later supervise the ENAs
who were once their teachers. The President believes
that only NEHAWU can change this.
It is important, the President stated, that the union
must understand the profession and the key issues
which affect nurses, such as, conditions in the
workplace, working hours, child care and study
leaves. The nurses are working under difficult
conditions with lack of equipment and medicines to
treat their patients.
The President further identified challenges facing
nurses such as “work overload, working beyond
their scope of practice and being exploited in the
workplace” which increasingly causing stress and
nurses to seek employment in other sectors.
In addition to these challenges, the President pointed
to age profile, shortage of nurses, poor working
conditions, a high rate of violence and abuse in the
workplace, lack of training opportunities and the
burden of HIV and Aids as nurses had now become
terminal caregivers not healers
Indeed, the President argued that the union is
quite aware of how unsafe our public hospitals
are as we have had incidents in the past of nurses
being killed at work. The brutal attacks and rapes
are taking place inside hospitals simply because
some in government would rather work in the
interest of the tenderprenuers as opposed to build a
developmental state. Outsourcing really undermines
the capacity of the state to deliver service to our
people hence there are a number of “bogus” and
illegal institutions claiming to be providing nursing
03
education and training with being approved by SANC.
A “remuneration system that will keep good nurses at
the bedside without removing them into management”
would be of great value to the health care sector, he
said.
The President ended his address by indicating that most
nurses in South Africa have put their hope in NEHAWU
in order to change their working conditions and better
their lives, we dare not to fail them.
The meeting of the 11th July received the reports on the
international nurse’s day celebration, progress on the
full time release of the nurse’s forum coordinators, South
African Nursing Council, bargaining matters and after
deliberations concluded as follows;
•
04
Branch, regional and provincial nurses’ forum
meetings must be convened to receive reports and
obtain mandates on bargaining related matters
affecting nurses. These include:
•
Reviewing the Occupation Specific Dispensation
(OSD).
•
Recovering overpayment of the OSD, and
confirming how many nurses are affected by
this.
•
Review of the rural allowance.
•
Recognition of improved qualifications.
•
Engaging with the national Nursing Strategy,
with specific reference to mandatory
white uniforms, Continuing Professional
Development (CPD), recruitment and retention
plan for nurses.
•
Nurses’ Forums must be launched in outstanding
branches and regions.
•
Nurses’ Forums are to be convened quarterly, and
the work of the forum must be linked with the public
health sectoral bargaining forum and provincial
bargaining chambers.
•
The outstanding release of the provincial Nurses’
Forum coordinators must be finalised.
•
Provincial Nurse’s Forum workshops must be
convened to discuss:
•
Induction on the roles and responsibilities
of Nurses’ Forum coordinators and their
relationship to organisers and PHOSECs.
•
The role of nurses in the NHI Pilot
districts.
•
A database of nurses at all levels must be
developed.
•
The recruitment plan targeting students
and staff at nursing colleges should be
implemented.
•
Strategic and progressive union members who
will collaborate on the transformation of the
South African Nursing Council (SANC) must be
identified.
•
International Nurses’ Day must be celebrated
on 12 May each year.
The forum finally elected comrade Ndoyisile
Sekwati as the national nurse’s co-ordinator.
Comrade Sekwati was the provincial co-ordinator
of the Western Cape Province. He was born in
Smithfield in Free State. He completed his Nursing
Diploma (General, Community, and Psychiatry)
at Free State School of Nursing where he was SRC
President as well as Provincial Secretary of South
African Student Nurses Organisation. For a period
he acted as General Secretary of SASNO.
Comrade Ndoyisile joined NEHAWU whilst he was a
Student Nurses Forum Coordinator in Free State. He
is currently employed at Alexandra Hospital in Cape
Town. *
Issued by: NEHAWU Communications
Tel:- 011 833 2902 | Email:- [email protected] | Website:- www.nehawu.org.za
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NEHAWU NURSES’ FORUM BULLETIN BUILDING STRONG WORKPLACE ORGANISATION, CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS AND INTERNATIONALISM

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