Netcare
"They are wives and mothers at home, at hospitals they are the military machine, the backbone of efficiency and healing."
That's how Gift of the Givers founder, Dr Imtiaaz Sooliman, described nurses, who like other healthcare workers, are at the forefront in the fight against the Covid19 pandemic.
On Wednesday, Gift of the Givers said it presented gift packs to nurses at the Provincial Hospital in Kariega, as a symbolic recognition of nurses worldwide for being outstanding Hospital Heroes.
"We've watched them in Covid-19, the biggest medical emergency the world is experiencing in recent times. These nurses don their uniform, wear a smile, leave home willingly, mindful they could be next in line for a ventilator in the face of a highly infectious, deadly, and intelligent microbe," he said.
Sooliman said the risk of contracting Covid-19 at work is very real with many a colleague and other healthcare workers having succumbed to the virus.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa hosted its World Nurses Day commemoration in Pretoria under the international theme, "Nurses: A Voice To Lead - A Vision for future healthcare."
Denosa said the theme emphasised the need to continue investing in nursing "as the backbone of healthcare" and highlighted by the global pandemic.
The health-sector union said this year's International Nurses Day comes 15 months after the country was placed under COVID-19 lockdown.
"Since then, more than 1,5 million South Africans had been infected with COVID-19. Of this, more than 54 500 citizens have since been lost to the pandemic including more than 800 healthcare workers, mostly nurses," Denosa said.
"Despite this, at least 95% is the recovery rate of those who have been infected, which talks to the hard work that nurses and many other healthcare professionals have had to put in to shield South Africans from the jaws of COVID-19 despite the many challenges that they still work under."
