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16 May 2023 | Story André Damons | Photo Charl Devenish
Prof Mokgadi Matlakala
Prof Mokgadi Matlakala, Academic Chairperson of the Department of Health Studies at UNISA and Deputy Chairperson of the Forum for University Deans in South Africa (FUNDISA), was the keynote speaker and acknowledged the contribution of nurses and the courage to continue to advocate for improved health and healthcare.

Nurses serve with pride, and they should be protected, valued, and respected.

This was the recurring thought from speakers at the University of the Free State (UFS) School of Nursing’s International Nurses Day celebrations.

“We celebrate this day to highlight the importance of nurses in the healthcare services, and to honour our heroes – us being the heroes as well,” said keynote speaker Prof Mokgadi Matlakala, Academic Chairperson of the Department of Health Studies at UNISA and Deputy Chairperson of the Forum for University Deans in South Africa (FUNDISA). “We acknowledge the contribution of nurses and the courage to continue to advocate for improved health and healthcare – and this amid the challenges confronting us.”  

Prof Matlakala said the theme of the day, “Our Nurses. Our Future”, comes at a very critical time for the nursing profession, given the circumstances following the COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing transformation needed in nursing education, particularly in South Africa. 

International Nurses Day is celebrated annually on 12 May, and this year the UFS School of Nursing also hosted a tree-planting to commemorate nurses who lost their lives during the pandemic. Several other activities, including an Amazing Race, outdoor events, and stalls portrayed nursing services in various contexts. 

Prof Matlakala said the day also serves as a way of sharing ideas about changes taking place in nursing, and imagining a nurse of the future, both in practice and academia. “In the African context, it is important for us to reflect and understand who our nurses are, where are they, and where have they been trained.”

World mistakenly took nurses for granted

“Today we have an opportunity to celebrate ourselves as nurses, and I encourage you to acknowledge the good work you are doing. And I include the student nurses as well, because they are our future.”

Prof Matlakala said during the pandemic the world mistakenly took nurses for granted. “They treated us as invisible, and as an inexhaustible resource,” she said, outlining areas such as illness among nurses, fear of the pandemic, death, work overload, and unprecedented changes in nursing environments and nursing education as areas where nurses were “taken for granted as superheroes”.

“The pandemic is over, but the question is: Did the nurses receive any counselling after surviving the pandemic? Did they get special leave to rest? In the nursing practice it is business as usual. In nursing education institutions, they are speaking of catching up on the time lost during the pandemic. Nobody is thinking of exhaustion as a non-communicable disease. Yet, many of our nurses are suffering from exhaustion both mentally and physical. It is thus important that we advocate for wellness for our nurses.”

Protect. Respect. Value

Prof Matlakala said protecting nurses relates to how the government or health system can address the growing nursing shortage and provide positive practice environments, especially with regard to safety in the workplace. She also said the ongoing shortage of nurses is a pandemic that is felt across the globe.

Her message to future nurses is that the profession needs nurses who will be available to confront the many challenges nurses are experiencing. “You need to be assertive and take control of your professional status despite the problems we are hearing. One of the values that we need to have is a positive attitude, which means we need to focus on solutions, not only on problems.”

Celebrating the impact of nursing services

Prof Gert van Zyl, Dean of the UFS Faculty of Health Sciences, welcomed guests and said International Nurses Day celebrates the impact of nursing services in providing high-quality healthcare to patients and improving their overall wellbeing. 

“Nurses play a critical role in the healthcare system, providing care, support, and education to patients and their families. Thank you for your dedication and passion for your profession,” Prof Van Zyl said. “Thank you for all the sacrifices you made to provide the highest level of care and support to people in need in the recent COVID-19 time. Moreso, your contribution to the healthcare industry is immeasurable. We are grateful for everything you do and have done. Keep up the excellent work.”

He added that he believes professional nurses are motivated by many factors, including three main ones: “A desire to help others, a sense of purpose, and the satisfaction of making a difference in people’s life. To motivate nurses for the future, it is important to recognise their achievements, to support them, and to provide opportunities for development and growth.” 

Dr Jeanette Sebaeng, Head of the School of Nursing, said she is privileged to be part of this “very sacred” profession. “I had an opportunity to see life for the first time. I had an opportunity to close someone’s eyes for the first time. I don’t think I would be anything else, even in the next life, other than a nurse.” 

She said when 2020 was declared the Year of the Nurse and Midwife, by year-end the meaning had become grim. “We did not expect that it would be our year in that manner. We lost close to 300 nurses in South Africa due to COVID-19. Even after losing our colleagues, here we are, still strong. That is resilience, and for that I salute you.”

News Archive

Stress and fear on wild animals examined
2013-06-04

 

Dr Kate Nowak in the Soutpansberg Mountain
Photo: Supplied
04 June 2013

Have you ever wondered how our wild cousins deal with stress? Dr Kate Nowak, visiting postdoctoral researcher at the Zoology and Entomology Department at the UFS Qwaqwa Campus, has been assigned the task to find out. She is currently conducting research on the effects that stress and fear has on primate cognition.

The Primate and Predator project has been established over the last two years, following Dr Aliza le Roux’s (also at the Zoology and Entomology Department at Qwaqwa) interest in the effects of fear on primate cognition. Dr le Roux collaborates with Dr Russel Hill of Durham University (UK) at the Lajuma Research Centre in Limpopo and Dr Nowak has subsequently been brought in to conduct the study.

Research on humans and captive animals has indicated that stress can powerfully decrease individuals’ cognitive performance. Very little is known about the influence of stress and fear on the cognition of wild animals, though. Dr Nowak will examine the cognition of wild primates during actual risk posed by predators. This is known as the “landscape of fear” in her research.

“I feel very privileged to be living at Lajuma and on top of a mountain in the Soutpansberg Mountain Range. We are surrounded by nature – many different kinds of habitats including a tall mist-belt forest and a variety of wildlife which we see regularly, including samangos, chacma baboons and vervet monkeys, red duiker, rock hyrax, banded mongooses, crowned eagles, crested guinea fowl and cape batis. And of course those we don't see but find signs of, such as leopard, genet, civet and porcupine. Studying the behaviour of wild animals is a very special, and very humbling, experience, reminding us of the diversity of life of which humans are only a very small part,” said Dr Nowak.

At present, the research team is running Giving up Densities (GUD) experiments. This represents the process during which an animal forsakes a patch dense with food to forage at a different spot. The animal faces a trade-off between meeting energy demands and safety – making itself vulnerable to predators such as leopards and eagles. Dr le Roux said that, “researchers from the US and Europe are embracing cognitive ecology, revealing absolutely stunning facts about what animals can and can’t do. Hence, I don’t see why South Africans cannot do the same.”

Dr Nowak received the Claude Leon Fellowship for her project. Her research as a trustee of the foundation will increase the volume and quality of research output at the UFS and enhance the overall culture of research. Her analysis on the effect that stress and fear have on wild primates’ cognition will considerably inform the emerging field of cognitive ecology.

The field of cognitive ecology is relatively new. The term was coined in the 1990s by Les Real to bring together the fields of cognitive science and behavioural ecology.


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