Kwa-Hlabisa Hospital Ready to Welcome New Intake of UKZN Nursing Students

BY: .

The Kwa-Hlabisa Hospital Management is keen to welcome the next batch of UKZN fourth-year Primary Healthcare (PHC) Nursing students for their decentralised clinical training platform (DCTP) following a successful pilot project last month.

According to nursing facilitator and teacher of the Primary Healthcare module, Mr Lungelo Masinga, the first batch of students immediately decided to embark on an outreach after discovering that men in the area were not taking advantage of HIV Counselling and testing on offer.

The students went to the local taxi rank, introduced themselves to the operating managers and asked to be allowed to do an outreach for drivers and conductors.

The students were given space in one of the offices at the rank where they saw about 40 men for private consultation, counselling and HIV testing.

According to Masinga, students were very happy to be a part of this experience and Kwa-Hlabisa Hospital management appreciated their inputs and requested UKZN to send further PHC students in future.

‘I am optimistic that DCTP will yield great results. It exposes students to rural and underserved communities which is a step towards addressing the disparity of professional nurses in rural areas,’ he said.

The DCTP was initiated in the College of Health Sciences to develop skills among Health Science students through working in rural and primary healthcare settings.

Words: Nombuso Dlamini

Photographs: Supplied