Allow me space in your newspaper share my concern for the future of nursing in Namibia and that of the youth of Namibia at large. We understand that the Ministry of Health is importing nurses from Uganda, Kenya and Botswana. We, as the nurses beside the patient-bed, believe this will not tackle the issue of nursing service shortage in Namibia.

We want Cabinet to consider the following reasons to return the nurse assistant to the service: Nurses’ assistant training requires someone with only Grade 10 and we have a lot of Grade 10’s in the street. This will assist the government to create jobs for the youth. Grade 10 is a minimum requirement for nursing assistants, even in neighboring South Africa and Botswana. Probably some of the nurses that the Ministry is importing to Namibia started with assistant nursing and then expanded their horizons to become registered nurses.
What if we copy neighboring South Africa’s nursing education system or Botswana, so that we can have the entry-requirement for nursing assistant set at Grade 10. We also have Grade 12s who did not obtain enough marks to be admitted to higher education institution
Nurse assistant courses take only six months to one year, depending on the curriculum. This will double or triple the number of nurses coming into the services every year. It will reduce the burden on the Ministry’s budget because now it won’t have to pay for grants or a token of thanks to foreign nurses when their contracts end.
It will also assist the Ministry of Youth in creating job opportunities for the youth and the Ministry of Finance to reduce poverty and create wealth.  If the government of Namibia wants to give money to Kenya ,Uganda and Botswana for solidarity reasons, why can’t we send Grade 10 leavers to those countries to study and pay for them? We fought for our country so we can work for ourselves.
What the nursing services needs for it to improve is not ward-aid, but nursing assistance. This is the observation of nurses beside the patient-bed and not nurses in the office. Our MP’s do not have the nation’s interest at heart. Last year they were quick to copy the salary structure for MP’s in America and Europe. Why can’t they copy the system of nursing training in South Africa? All they want is fat salaries like Americans and Europeans, while importing professionals which we can produce ourselves.
In South Africa nurses’ assistants need only to have Grade 10 and to understand English. This importing of nurses is just overworking us because we now have to translate for the nurse and doctor.
Kamwi, you need to take a week off and test your own medicine when those nurses come into a real clinical situation. The nursing shortage is a national concern. Why it’s never discussed in the parliament? Minister Petrina Haingura why are you so quiet? You were a nurse by profession and you know the wonders the nurse assistants used to do. Now that you are a minister it seems you have forgotten were you come from.
Ministers get real and serve the Namibia nation with honesty and integrity.

Nurse activist