Nurses in private and public practice exchange notes at annual conference
This is according to Dr Tracey de Klerk, chair of the Gauteng department of health, who was speaking at the two-day Fifth African Nursing Conference which started on Wednesday and will continue until Thursday at the Birchwood Hotel & OR Tambo Conference Centre in Boksburg.
'For the past two conferences, there were many requests for the public to know more about private, and private to know more about public, especially with the word NHI (National Health Insurance) and people not understanding that NHI is a fund and that we are looking at universal health coverage,' she said.
Different speakers across the Sadc region and various provinces in the country tackled different topics about the nurses' profession and the challenges they have.
De Klerk said the conference was more focused on universal health coverage. She said it was about showing people that public and private health nurses could work together — but first, they need to understand each other.
'Sometimes we need to ask a question, not just to get a response, but to get that understanding. Because when you understand, whether it's culture, e nvironment or even the health ecosystem, it touches your mind, it touches your heart to have a look at the magnitude of the public sector and why the public sector also needs that support,' she said.
According to her, they are using the conference to look at the best practices, and both public and private practitioners were combining ideas on how best nurses can work together during the NHI implementation.
'What can we do collectively to move forward? Because, you know, there's a proverb that says, if you want to go fast, go alone. But if you want to go far, go together.
'We want to go far; we want the system to find a way to work. Yes, we know that there are issues, whether it is staffing, whether it is resources, but somewhere we have to begin,' she said.
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