The School of Nursing held its first unique Clinical placements stakeholder engagement event on Friday, 10th November 2023 at its state of the CHS Bellville campus. The purpose of the event was to have a face to face and direct engagement with clinical placement centres around the City of Cape Town where the School of Nursing places a significant number of its students from first year to fourth year for clinical experiential learning. This gave the School of Nursing and Department of Health, an opportunity to engage each other on issues, problems experienced and discuss strategies to mitigate any problems collaboratively towards a nursing curriculum that responds to development in the health and wellness fraternity. This special occasion gave SON an opportunity to showcase its state of the art learning and training facility to the stakeholders, and all were immensely impressed with the skills labs at CHS Bellville campus.
In welcoming the guests who attended, Dean, Prof Anthea Rhoda emphasized to the delegates that our students are guests at their clinical facilities,”we thank you indeed for your contribution, in developing our future nursing professionals and hosting our students annually” said Prof Rhoda. Prof Penelope Martin, Director of the School of Nursing, expressed her gratitude for the professional conduct they bestow on CHS students, and this event is a small appreciation for their contribution and support. Professor Firdouza Waggie, Deputy Dean for Clinical and Community Engagement, appealed to the community health centres and hospitals to also engage the Faculty when they have outreach initiatives, as CHS would like to partner with them.
Professor Talitha Crowley highlighted in her presentation that the clinical platform belongs to all involved and CHS cannot produce quality graduates without the input, feedback and collaboration, hence such engagement enables the School of Nursing to improve its programmes to meet the demand and development of the nursing fraternity in the health and wellness sector. The overall aim of the School of Nursing Bachelor of Nursing programme is to train nurses that are competent in midwifery and general nursing, using a primary health care approaches. Continuous stakeholder engagement facilitates the training of graduates who are ready to meet the demands and expectations in clinical practice.
The engagement event facilitated building relationships, fostering partnerships, and gave SoN an opportunity to present their views, vision and mission as well as the structure of the Bachelor of Nursing programme going forward and what they seek to achieve with the programme. It also allowed the clinical sites to identify and communicate challenges so the SoN and Faculty can implement strategies to improve the clinical placement process and experiential learning for students. The School of Nursing places its students at the following clinical sites in the Cape Metropole:
- Groote Schuur Hospital
- Helderberg Hospital
- Karl Bremer Hospital
- Khayelitsha Hospital
- Mowbray Maternity Hospital
- New Somerset Hospital
- Tygerberg Hospital
- Victoria Hospital
- City of Cape Town
- Bishop Lavis CHC
- Dirkie Uys CHC (Goodwood)
- Gustrouw
- Greenpoint CHC
- Khayelitsha site B youth centre clinic
- Macassar CHC
- Mitchell Plain CHC
- Netreg Clinic
- Vanguard CHC
- Lady Micheals
- Gugulethu MOU
- Hanover Park MOU
- Macassar MOU
