Valerie Janet Ehlers

The study attempted to identify the factors that influence compliance amongst 1039 members and their dependants of a particular medical aid scheme in South Africa who were registered for an asthma disease risk-management (DRM) programme. The sample consisted of 200 systematically selected individuals or their dependants. A quantitative, exploratory, and descriptive study was undertaken. Questionnaires for completion were posted to the individuals or their dependants. The Statistica 7.1 computer program was used to analyse the data.Most asthma patients did not comply with the DRM programme because they lacked knowledge of the programme. Asthma patients’ compliance with the DRM programme can be enhanced by the sustained, positive attitudes of their health providers and case managers; better promotion of the programme; and by involving the patients to a greater extent in the long-term management of their disease.Asthma patients require education about healthy lifestyles that would empower them to successfully manage their condition, which would prevent or at least reduce asthma attacks and/or hospital admissions.

Background: South Africa is a source country for many destination countries that recruit registered nurses who emigrate for personal and/or professional reasons. A large number of South African nurses belong to the baby boomer generation (born between 1943 and 1964) who will retire within the foreseeable future. Statistics from the South African Nursing Council show a decline of 42.0% in the number of nurses who completed their training in South Africa from 1996 to 2005. These aspects combine to predict a potential dire shortage of nurses in South Africa within the foreseeable future.Objectives: Retention of registered nurses should be the focus of health-care planners to avoid crises in South Africa’s health-care services. This study attempted to identify factors that would influence registered nurses’ decisions to stay with their current employers in the Gauteng Province of South Africa.Methods: An exploratory descriptive quantitative design was adopted and questionnaires were sent to a sample of nurses, registered with the South African Nursing Council (SANC), with addresses in the Gauteng Province. A total of 108 nurses completed and returned questionnaires, of whom 77 (73.1%) had considered leaving their current employers.Results: The most important factors that would influence more than 90.0% of these nurses’ decisions to stay with their current employers related to finances, safety and security, equipment and/or supplies, management, staff and patients.Conclusions: In terms of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Theory, deficiency needs (physiological, safety and social needs) should be met by improved salaries revised on an annual basis, paying long-service and outstanding-service bonuses, and improving the safety and security, as well the available equipment and supplies, at institutions. Sufficient numbers of nurses should be employed and vacancies should be filled rapidly. However, not all changes required to enhance nurses’ retention rates involve increased costs. Managers should lead by example and respect nurses, and encourage doctors as well as patients to do so, to meet nurses’ self-esteem needs. Recognising and rewarding outstanding service would meet nurses’ self-actualisation needs, as well as opportunities to further their education.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a general introduction to politics, and to describe some political changes which have affected the rendering of multi-disciplinary health care services in the Republic of South Africa since 1994. Political issues which will be addressed include: changed provincial borders; opening up of the Republic of South Africa’s international borders; increased emphasis on primary health care services; enhanced international involvement of the Republic of South Africa; changes in the statutory bodies governing the nursing profession; and changed legislation affecting health care workers. Political know-how is essential for professional survival. Unless nurses in the Republic of South Africa collaborate proactively as a united group representing the largest proportion of health care professionals in the country, the nursing profession and nursing education might become irrelevant to the political realities of the country and its people. Unless nurses can succeed in engaging in successful political debates and in negotiating their rights, they might become an increasingly voiceless, faceless and powerless female profession in the Republic of South Africa. However, politically knowledgeable nurses may help to ensure that the people will get the nurses and the nursing care they deserve, whilst the nurses will enjoy the benefits to which they are entitled, including market-related salaries.