Limpho Sello
THE Lesotho Nurses Association (LNA) has called on government to speed up the recruitment of nurses to reduce the strain on the health sector as well as alleviate the challenge of unemployment faced by trained but unemployed nurses.
LNA Secretary General Mateboho Khoanyane made the appeal in an interview with the Lesotho Times this week.
Ms Khoanyane said the association’s recent 44th Annual General Meeting (AGM) noted with concern that although several nurses had completed training, they still remained unemployed at a time when the health system was facing several challenges especially due to staff shortages.
Ms Khoanyane said many young people enrolled for nursing studies but failed to secure employment upon graduation.
“It pains to see the nursing graduates stay at home after completing their studies,” Ms Khoanyane said, adding, “It is a known fact that our hospitals and clinics face challenges of shortages of nurses and patients have to endure long queues to get health services”.
Ms Khoanyane said the LNA also urged government to look in to the issue of the establishments list which was used for recruitment purposes as it often indicated inaccurately that the health sector was adequately staffed.
She said there was need to introduce allowances for night duty as it was very risky and strenuous since night shifts were much longer than the usual daytime hours.
Ms Khoanyane said as much as they advocated for the wellbeing of nurses they also appealed to them to maintain professional standards at all times in serving patients who sometimes required extra care and attention.
“As nurses we are human beings who also fall ill at certain times.
“We would also want to be treated well so we appeal to nurses to do the same for patients who often complain about the attitude of some nurses,” Ms Khoanyane said.
She also appealed to nurses to join the LNA so that they could access services whenever they required them.
