The largest group of healthcare providers in South Africa is made up of nurses. The South African health system is under-resourced, healthcare providers find themselves working overtime due to a massive skills shortage. South African nurses are working excessively long hours and overwork leads to fatigue and fatigue leads to a greater chance of mistakes. Excessive overtime has been shown to impact negatively on patient care and increase the risk of compassion fatigue which includes desensitisation and loss of empathy.
It is very frustrating to go to a clinic or a hospital and you have to be in the queue for hours. I personally had to wait to wait in the queue for 5 hours at the clinic without anyone attending to me because the clinic was short staffed, It was the longest 5 hours of my life, I was in so much pain(umbilical hernia) but there was nothing I could do but wait. The shortage of health providers makes it hard to be a patient In the South African health system, patients can’t get undivided attention, it makes it hard for treatments to be individualised since each health care provider sees up to more than 8 patients a day.
As patients we complain about the poor quality of healthcare we are receiving and we fail to recognise the shortage of health professionals, we forget that they are also human and they deserve to rest. In 2015, a report by the University of Witwatersrand revealed that over 60% of nurses admitted reporting that they felt too tired to work while on duty. According to the study, this could be linked to the 70% of South African nurses who admitted to working overtime due to a massive skills shortage in this under-resourced sector. In the University of Witwatersrand study, nurses also reported high rates of unauthorised absences leading to further understaffing, overwork, and health worker exhaustion. Of all nurses, 10.9% indicated that they had taken sick leave when not actually sick and 5.6% had missed work without permission. While a minority of nurses in the study (2.9%) reported a medico-legal incident, the study found that 33.7% of those who had done moonlighting or agency nursing were involved in any of the negative incidents.
To maintain and improve standards of care and patient safety in South Africa, it’s important that we address low rates of clinical training in the profession and the casualisation of our nursing workforce. The argument for addressing the nursing crisis is supported by well-documented evidence that the number, competencies and effectiveness of nurses are critical in determining the quality of care, patient outcomes, as well as improving the performance of our current weak health system.
REFERENCES
Wildschut, A., & Mgqolozana, T. (2008). Shortage of nurses in South Africa: Relative or absolute? (pp. 1-82). South Africa: Department of Labour.
One thought on “SHORT-HANDED AND UNABLE TO REACH OUT”
Hi!
The picture you are painting of the nursing situation i SA is a somewhat familiar one in Norway as well.
I find a lot of similarities, and to use a personal anecdote as well, i know several people who work as nurses, and it is also one of the most understaffed and overworked professions here.
You use a good mix of facts and statistics, coupled with personal opinions and experiences to make your text resonate with a reader. Your text is also quite short and to the point, with a nice summary where you also express you opinion at the end.
All in all i would say you present your claims in a thought-out and precise matter on your focus for the task.