Western Cape Health Honours Nurses

International Nurses' Day is celebrated annually on 12 May, the anniversary of the founder of modern day nursing, Florence Nightingale's birthday.

Clinical facilities throughout the Western Cape will host events this month to commemorate the sterling work rendered by the dedicated nursing professionals employed in Western Cape Government Health. 

Why We Celebrate International Nurses’ Day

As the largest health care profession in the world, there is no doubt nurses are often the only health professionals accessible to many people in their lifetime. They are particularly well placed and often the most innovative in reaching underserved and disadvantaged populations. Nurses are educated to understand the complex nature of maintaining health and wellness, and the impact of psychosocial and socio-economic factors such as poverty, unemployment and ethnicity.

The Theme for this year’s commemorative day, as directed by the International Council of Nursing (ICN), is Closing the Gap: The Millennium Development Goals 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. 

Three goals – numbers four (reduce child mortality), five (improve maternal health) and six (combat HIV/AIDs, malaria and other diseases) – are specifically related to health and their achievement is closely linked to the other goals including those focused on poverty, hunger, gender equality and women’s empowerment.

Western Cape Health Minister Theuns Botha says: “Our nurses form almost half of the staff component of the health department and play a special role in providing and maintaining the health care system through the provision of a comprehensive quality health care service. I want to thank every nurse for your special commitment to health care.   

“Despite intense efforts to develop, recruit and retain specialised nurses – and despite the Occupational Specific Dispensation for nurses – the specialised services now have 25,4% less specialised nurses than four years ago. A main challenge remains to increase the number of nurses to be released and trained in specialty nursing. In the Western Cape 746 nurses still need to be trained by 2015. “

The Western Cape Government Health wishes to thank all nurses working in government facilities in the Western Cape for their hard work and dedication on International Nurses’ Day, 12 May 2013.