South Africa Grapples with Critical Nursing Shortage, Posing a Challenging Nurse-to-Citizen Ratio

• South Africa is currently facing a dire nursing crisis, according to Health Minister Dr Joe Phaahla's answer to Parliament
• The minister stated that there are 22 090 nurses employed to serve the whole country
• The Rural Health Advocacy Project nursing crisis is also caused by unemployed nurses who do not want to work in rural areas

JOHANNESBURG - The Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, has made a shocking revelation about the nursing industry in South Africa.

In response to the Democratic Alliance (DA)'s written parliamentary question about how many nurses are in the country, the minister wrote that only 22 090 nurses serve the South African population.

SA's shortage of nurses highlighted in Parliament

According to The Citizen, the figure presented by the minister indicates that there is one nurse for approximately 2 300 citizens.

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In his response, the minister dropped more bombshells and indicated that in the next decade, around 30% of the current nursing staff are heading for retirement, and an additional 38% will retire 10 years after that.

Phaahla added that there are currently 5 060 nursing posts that need to be filled in all provinces.

Poor nursing training blamed for unemployed nurses

According to BusinessLIVE, the Rural Health Advocacy Project says many nurses are sitting at home unemployed because there is a mismatch between the categories nurses are trained in and the skills needed in the field.

The organisation added that in addition to poor training, some nurses don't want to work in rural and remote areas.

Netcare has also raised concerns about the nursing crises, saying it has the ability to train 3 500 nurses a year but has only been accredited to train 10% of that.

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Young woman celebrates becoming a permanent nurse after 3 months of unemployment, peeps congratulate

Briefly News previously reported that the stress and struggle of unemployment is real; sadly, many Mzansi youth can relate.

That is why one young South African woman, Thando Hadebe (@u_thandohadebe), was over the moon when she finally secured a job as a nurse after three months of unemployment.

She caption the post:

"POV: You were unemployed for three months, and you finally have a permanent job."

Source: Briefly News