By Gideon Nkala Staff Writer. Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone). Africa News Online. July 7, 2000
Gaborone - With the exodus of local nurses to the United Kingdom and other countries of Western Europe, government's efforts to recruit nurses from China and Latin America have backfired. The Nursing and Midwives Council of Botswana has rejected government's plans to indiscriminately recruit
nurses from around the world as undermining the integrity of the nursing profession.
Recently, a batch of 20 nurses from Cuba who had been flown into the country at government expense were at the centre of a nerve-wracking dispute between the Ministry of Health and the Nursing Council.
According to the chairperson of the Nursing Council, Dr.
Esther Seloilwe, the dispute emanated from what they considered the non- compliance with the requirements of the nursing registration process. "Before one can practice, the regulations dictate that the person has to be subjected to a specific test to ensure that he is worthy of a licence to
practice.
In the case of the Cubans, they were brought to work in the country even before they could be issued with licences. As a Council we have a duty to protect consumers of health services and that is why we had to insist that they could not practice without having been issued with licences."
According to Seloilwe, at first the Ministry was at cross-purposes on the real intervention of the Council but she is happy that they in the end saw things the Council's way.
"We were ultimately allowed to interview the Cuban nurses. It was quite a hassle to interview the nurses, as they do not speak any of the official languages in Botswana, even their certificates were written in Spanish.
We had to rely on the medium of translation to carry out both oral and written interviews," she said.
After the interviews, out of the 20 nurses only 15 were issued with certificates to practice. "The other five I presume must have been sent back to Cuba because we will not issue them with licences to practice without compromising the health standards that we jealously protect".
While the issue might have presented the Nursing Council with a major coup in their pursuit of professionalism within the nursing fraternity, it is understood to have presented government with a dilemma.
Government is understood to have some long-standing bilateral agreements with both Cuba and China to assist with health workers. The unceremonious return of the five nurses after their governments had been assured that they had got employment is likely to jolt the bilateral relationship and
hence blight what has been Botswana's major pool of health workers.
The nurses' saga has renewed a debate on the competency of other health workers in the country who were hired before they were subjected to the same licensing test.
According to Seloilwe, this process has only been effected after they assumed office in April 1998. "Before this Council was put in place, we have always had suspicions that people who were under-qualified were in our midst," complained one nurse.
The Ministry of Health too is understood to have spent handsomely on the upkeep of nurses both in ferrying them into the country and while they were resident in Botswana.
"If the Ministry had taken cognisance of the Nursing Council, this unnecessary expenditure would not have occurred," one nurse said.
On a related matter, Seloilwe is convinced that government is sitting on a time bomb unless they act fast to stop what she calls the exodus of local nurses to work in foreign countries.
"I have made an appointment with the Minister to make her aware of our great concern in this matter. In my view the only route to go is to improve working conditions for the nurses, otherwise the brain drain will continue.
The Ministry will have to consider other options like engaging nurses on part-time basis to alleviate the crisis".
At the time of going to press, Ministry of Health officials had still not responded to Mmegi's questions on how much had been spent on the nurses and to give health consumers assurance that all health practitioners that have been sourced from outside were beyond reproach in terms of their
competence.
Copyright (c) 2000 Mmegi/The Reporter. Distributed via \ (www.africanews.org). |