VANDERBIJLPARK – The event was organized by the Chief Directorate of Nursing in collaboration with the Gauteng Nurse Leaders Forum (GNLF).
According to the MEC of Health in the province Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko, the event is aimed at improving nursing leadership and management, nursing practice, education, and research through sharing best practices and promoting nursing.
Addressing the gathered healthcare practitioners, Nkomo-Ralehoko said “Our department continues to strive for delivery of quality health services, by focusing on fixing Finance, Human Resources, Monitoring and Evaluation, and Risk Management of the Department.
“This research conference will help the department in addressing risks such as patient safety incidences, abandoning outdated practices, and strengthening health system,” she said.
Nkomo-Ralehoko added that nurses play a vital role in disease prevention and population-based health screening programme that the administration wants to achieve.
“The 2008 World Health Organisation’s report entitled Primary Healthcare: Now More Than Ever, also clearly states that only through building and strengthening health systems will it be possible to adequately address preventable causes of morbidity and mortality. I am pleased to know that we have started the training of GDOH officials in research through the GDOH&W’s own Foundation for Research and Evaluation Training Programme,” she said.
“This means that over and above providing clinical services, we have started the journey of strategic Human Resource Development of developing individual researchers in the operational environment and that we now have institutional capacity to train them in the form of the Foundation for Research and Evaluation Training Programme,” she added.
Nkomo-Ralehoko said “as the MEC of Health and Wellness, I am delighted in the mobilisation of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) platform that will strengthen and capacitate our nurses. I am pleased to hear, that the already, the implementation of this platform has yielded a positive impact on our patients”.
