Have you heard about the Exceptional Nurses Campaign?

Have you heard about the Exceptional Nurses Campaign? It is a non-profit organisation that raises awareness on the nursing crisis in South Africa.

The organisation recently held a Night Run to honour healthcare workers at Marks Park Sports Club. But why are their efforts so important and what key concerns have they spotted within the profession?

To tell us more about the campaign, its director, Teresa Basson, shared some critical information that will hopefully inspire you to either answer the calling within you to become a nurse or give back to the profession in some empathetic fashion.

Basson, a retired nurse herself, said the organisation forms part of a group of professional nurses and concerned citizens who just want to see the country thrive. “In order for a country to thrive it needs to have an outstanding healthcare system and we just feel because nurses form 70% of the employees of the Department of Health, making them the backbone of the healthcare system.”

The goal of the campaign is to raise a whole new generation of exceptional nurses in the nation. Basson shared how there is a critical shortage of 30 000 professional and specialist nurses in the country currently.

“South Africa only trains 3 000 a year, however, 50% of our nurses are over the age of 50 and will be retiring within the next 10 to 15 years and 9 000 are exiting the profession each year due to retirement and other circumstances and yet we are only producing 3 000 every year to fill the gap, so we going through a serious decline of nurses.”

The organisation is resolute in the thought that healthcare is a basic human right that should not be a luxury for the wealthy. In their effort to try stop the critical shortage of nurses, the campaign hosts events like the night run, which was to raise funds for bursaries for student nurses, and also promote a culture of honour and gratitude toward nurses and work toward recruiting exceptional nurses in the profession.