BY MBONO MDLULI
MBABANE – Prime Minister Russell Mmiso Dlamini is concerned by the gap that exists between junior and senior nursing professionals in the country and calls for that to be addressed urgently.
The prime minister said this today when launching the Nursing Leadership Initiative (NLI) at Hilton Garden Inn, Mbabane. The premier said the gap was the one that caused the constant conflict between Government and Swaziland Nurses Association (SNA).
Dlamini said he understood that today, when he launched the NLI, he met with the senior nurses, yet he also wanted to meet the junior nurses. He wanted this because he believed there was a gap between the two sets of nurses. In his view, Dlamini said the gap was largely on purpose – finding one’s purpose, knowing one’s purpose, as well as living one’s purpose, as a nurse.
“I believe there is a need to strengthen the purpose of the nursing profession, hence the need to close the gap between the junior and the senior cadre,” Dlamini said. “The gap has consistently led to a conflict between Government and the nurses’ association.”
The prime minister stated that such challenges were cheating Emaswati of the quality services they were supposed to get from the nurses. “Whilst we are proud of having qualified nurses, who are the best in Africa and probably the world, not all of the citizens of the country are getting the dividends of that,” he said. He called for nurses and Government to tackle the root cause of this problem to be dealt with once and for all. He said treating the symptoms of this problem would not help, but uprooting the real problem was the one that would help.
