PROFESSIONAL NURSING EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

The life-giving force of any profession arises from and is nurtured by the members of that profession who have recognized the value of organized interdependence.

The Professional organization today, among nurses in South Africa is taken for granted. In 1964 we had a strong Association watching over the interests of the Profession.

Lack Cohesion

By 1913 there were hundreds of trained nurses and midwives practicing in South Africa. They had a low economic status and the professional education facilities were inadequate and the statutory control of nurses was vested in four Provincial Medical Councils, on which nurses were nor represented.

Sister Henrietta Stockdale

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Sister Henrieta Stockdale was the founder of professional nursing in South Africa, she provided the professional leadership which reconciled the interest of the nurse and of the community. She urged improvements in professional standards and cherished professional ethics and ideals.

In 1891 the act was passed to make provision for the Registration and Licencing of Medical Practitioners, Dentists, Pharmacists, Midwives, and Nurses. The Colony of the Cape of Good Hope became the first country in the world to pass legislation for the registration of nurses and midwives.

In 1938 the South African Association of Trained Nurses requested the minister of Public Health to amend the Medical, Dental and Pharmaceutical Act 13 of 1928 to provide for a constitution for a Nursing Council to enable nurses to exercise control over their profession themselves. The request was denied. On 23 March 1043, the Association of Trained nurses submitted a preliminary Bill, which was tabled in Parliament as an Ordinary Member. This Bill was approved and the Nursing Act 45 of 1944 was promulgated on June 6, 1944. Fifty-three-years after Sister Henrietta Stockdale had obtained official registration for nurses, legislation was passed that made registration compulsory for every nurse.
This Act granted statutory responsibility to the nursing profession for the control of its own personal affairs. Training, examining, registration, and the ethical conduct of nurses are vested in the South African Nursing Council (Searle, 1965:244-253). The South African Nursing Council is constituted in terms of the Nursing Act.

The Objectives of a Professional Regulation

The main objective is to act in the interest of the public.

• to protect the public from unsafe practices
• the setting of professional-ethical standards to ensure quality services
• to confer accountability, identity and professional status upon the practitioner

The public is entitled to acceptable and accessible services by the profession, in accordance with the policy statement of that country.

The target group

The target group in professional regulation consist of the following

• the practitioner who provides the service
• the educational system, which is made up of the educational programmes, system, and persons who are responsible for the educational (theoretical and practical/clinical) preparation of the practitioner
• the system of health care services, which provides the service to the customer and in which the practitioner is trained and educated.

The patient as the recipient of Health Services is always involved in the standard of services and should be directly or indirectly be represented on the decision-making bodies.

Work Methods

The work methods refer to the processes in operation according to which regulation takes place. Processes include following:

• compiling curricula and training/educational programmes
• developing reliable and valid measuring instruments whereby knowledge and skills of the professional can be measured
• evaluation methods to training schools, educational institutions and health services where a student is trained
• the system of examining and certification
• the system whereby practitioners are disciplined

Training of nurses before Henrietta Stockdale

With the training of nurses in South Africa, every hospital had its own syllabus and length of training. The public did not know what the abilities were of a nurse and especially the quality of training and the reputation of a specific hospital. Anyone could enter into a nursing job, with or without training.

State Registration

State registration gave nurses professional status and nurses are thus acknowledged as professionals by the general public. This means that the nurse had to meet certain criteria and standards of education before he or she may practice as a nurse and it also protects the public against untrained nurses. Nursing as a profession is controlled to ensure that those in the profession maintain the standards set by the state.

Sister Henrietta in front of the Kimberley Hospital

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Carnavon hospital in Kimberley became the first training hospital. At first, the duration of the training was 2 years but by 1889, Carnavon hospital became the first hospital who offered 3 years training of nurses as backed by The British Nursing Association. The Kimberley trained nurses were in high demand and they took charge of hospitals and established nurse training schools throughout South Africa.

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The nursing profession was left without a leader when she passed away in 1911, although Sister Henrietta had groomed Ms. J.C. Child, a leading nurse who arrived in South Africa in 1899, to take over her role.

Lavinia Dock, in 1920, wrote in her book on the history of nursing: "Sister Henrieta was a woman of fine culture and seriousness of character. Her personality made a deep impression on nurses, when, at international meetings in England in 1899, she told of the steps by which they had gained what was then so great a novelty, the first state recognition of the profession of nursing."

Memorial to Sister Henrietta in Kimberley

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The South African Nursing Association, now Democratic Nurses Association of South Africa (Denosa), in 1970 funded a statue in honor of sister Henrieta. Dr. Jack Penn, an internationally famous sculpture, and plastic surgeon sculpted the statue. The statue can be found on the grounds of the Cyprian's Cathedral in Kimberley and is one of the very few statues in the world honoring the work of religious sisters.

"Whene'er a noble deed is wrought.
Our hearts, in glad surprise,
To higher levels rise." Longfellow

Sister Henrieta collected funds for a Chapel at the hospital in 1887. The chapel, which is now an official heritage site, still stands at Kimberley Hospital and was later named after Sister Henrietta Stockdale.

"No book that can ever be written will really give an idea of her wonderful personality." FS

When the new democratic government took over in 1994, all the nursing colleges were closed.

They now realized what enormous mistake this was and are in the process to open some of those colleges again.

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