Cape Town - The hall of the Western Cape College of Nursing was bursting at the seams on Tuesday, as over 300 students from various programmes were welcomed, and in particular, the first cohort of Postgraduate Diploma nursing students.
Health and Wellness MEC Nomafrench Mbombo joined the welcoming at the Athlone Campus yesterday.
The college previously offered the programmes at a NQF level 7, however, it is the first time it is being registered at a NQF level 8.
From Montana, Kaye Freeman, 19, a first-year student in the Higher Certificate in Auxiliary Nursing programme, said: “I have a passion for nursing. I’ve always wanted to help people and care for them.
“The Western Cape College of Nursing campus was one of the top nursing colleges in the province. I was nervous in the beginning but I think my passion will allow me to persevere.”
College director, Dr Tendani Mabuda, said: “Our vision is to be a premiere college of nursing, education and training in the country that will produce nurses who are able to work within the interprofessional environment. Nurses who embrace patient-centred care. Nurses who embrace technology and any advancement in the profession.”
The college is the only one to offer a Bachelor’s Degree, outside of a university setting.
“That programme is also very important to us because we are the first public college in South Africa to offer the Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing,” Mabuda said.
Mbombo noted the unemployment of nurses across the country.
This, as the Democratic Nursing Organisation of SA stated in May last year, that over 20 000 nurses were unemployed, amid a concern over a critical shortage of nurses in the country.
Mbombo stressed the importance of bringing services to the community, whether it be at a taxi rank or a mall.
“You’ve seen disease outbreaks. We’ve come from Covid-19, which left us wounded, meaning our services, we have to do what we call service redesign.
“We have to do things differently,” Mbombo said.
Touching on the other crises affecting the health-care system, Mbombo said wars were not cut off from the health-care system.
“You must be asking yourself, what does this have to do with us, with health?
“The price of panado, food, oil, and all of those – the price is high because of the wars.”
Social factors such as taxi violence and energy crisis formed part of the polycrisis impacting the health-care system, Mbombo said.
“The first people who normally get and absorb these shocks are (in) the health system.”