|
|
|
Mini docs up in arms
Di Caelers
2007-11-30
Nurses doing specialist training within the state sector to become mini doctors are up in arms after learning that after a year of study their qualification will be worth nothing. The nurses are state employees whose studies are funded by the provincial health department, but apparently the course at Karl Bremer Hospital does not have the blessing of the South African Nursing Council. A total of 20 nurses are affected in 2007 and a similar number from 2006, all studying curative skills in primary health care.
They are training as clinical nurse practitioners - effectively mini doctors - and are hailed as crucial to the success of a nurse-driven health service which is at the crux of the province's Healthcare 2010 revitalisation plan. Other clinical nurse practitioner (CNP) training courses, like the ones at the Universities of the Western Cape and Stellenbosch, are apparently not affected. But state-employed nurses are flabbergasted. It's bizarre. We're getting paid while we're studying in 2007 and they're actually paying the cost of our studies. Why on earth would they do that if at the end we're going to find out that we won't actually be qualified, one said.
Faiza Steyn, spokesperson for the provincial health department, said the department had learnt recently that all short courses listed with the Nursing Council, of which the curative skills in primary healthcare was one, were discontinued from 2006. Remedial measures are being put in place by liaising with the accredited higher education institutions, applying the recognition of prior learning (RPL) principles, she said. According to the nurses, who have not been informed officially, they will have to complete a series of assignments, on top of their year of study, before they become accredited.
One, who completed her study year in 2006, said she had been doing the job of a CNP all year - this included the right to dispense medicine. I never thought for a moment that I wasn't actually accredited. I was only told recently. There was no reason for me to ever think there might be a problem with a course I'd been sent on by my employer, which is the health department, she said. An information session to discuss the issue was apparently due to be held on Tuesday. The nurses are also concerned as to how the lack of accreditation will affect their future earnings because it appears that those who have the qualification not recognised by the Nursing Council will be referred to as Phase one CNPs, and be put on the first notch of the speciality - or earn R160 470 annually. CNPs in possession of a Nursing Council-registered qualification in primary health care will enjoy a recalculation of their salaries and will be called Phase 2 CNPs.
|
News
