Private hospitals “import” nurses from India
The first group of nurses, who will arrive at Medi-Clinic hospitals in August, are expected to stay for at least three years until there are enough South African nurses.
Medi-Clinic nursing director Estelle Jordaan said the move has attracted a lot of flack from the nursing community which felt the nurses may not be as competent, but she explained they had specifically opted for India because ‘their nurses are well trained, they have more nurses in the country than they are able to employ and their work ethic in unbelievable’.
Jordaan, who worked as a nurse most of her life, said the rationalization of nursing training institutions in the Western Cape had a major impact on the number of nurses.
‘The province went from four nursing colleges and three universities training nurses to one of each,’ said Jordaan, adding that there was a desperate shortages in many other parts of the country as well.
Many highly trained and experienced nurses have also left the country in their droves to work in among others the United Kingdom and Middle-East, where salaries were better.
‘We quickly realized we needed to look at a pool outside of the country,’ said Jordaan.
Three years ago Medi-Clinic placed advertisements in the Middle-East and United Kingdom in the hope of attracting South Africans back to the country.
‘There was a lot of enthusiasm, but at that stage the salaries just weren’t competing,’ said Jordaan.
In December 2005 Jordaan went on ‘look-see’ visits to the Philippines, India and Singapore.
‘The Indian nurses are really well trained and for them nursing is still a calling, so you have a very special cadre of nurses.’
Medi-clinic advertised 150 posts in India and received a staggering 3 500 applications.
A total of 23 nurses recently wrote a nursing council exam and will arrive in South Africa in August if they are successful.
Jordaan said the nurses would be paid the same as their South Africa peers, but will receive accommodation allowances as they are contract workers and will not be paid a pension benefit.
‘India has trained more nurses than they can employ so you have many highly trained nurses desperate to work,’ said Jordaan. Another big draw card is the fact that one month’s salary in South Africa is equivalent to a year’s payment in India.
Jordaan has already returned to India and recruited a further 120 nurses who will write the Nursing Council exam.
Medi-Clinic has also introduced retention bonuses for its current nursing staff, a move which has seen it lose less staff to its competitors who are often prepared to pay much higher salaries to attract nurses.
‘We are not prepared to play that game. We can’t offer higher salaries to people in other hospitals in the hope of attracting them while staff who has been loyal to the hospital for years is still working for the same salary,’ said Jordaan.
Jordaan said they also offered training opportunities for staff, improved their working environment, offered healthcare services, psycho-social support and ensured they continuously communicated with nurses.
‘It’s more than just paying higher salaries,’ smiled Jordaan, who worked as an Intensive Care nurse and Nursing manager at Vincent Pallotti hospital for over 10 years.
‘I feel a personal responsibility to make a difference in the nursing profession,’ she adds.
Medi-Clinic currently has six institutions across the country where nurses are trained.
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