Work history of nurses trained in natal

Abstract

In a recent survey it was found that although Natal/KwaZulu has 25.1% of the South African population, it has only 20,9% of the country’s registered nurses (Muller and Coetzee, 1990). This means that Natal has the worst population to registered nurse ratio of the three large urban areas (Natal 551:1, Western Cape 324:1; Pretoria/Witwatersrand 319:1). The same report showed that, although, Natal/KwaZulu has 25,1% of the population, it only trains 9,2% of the current nursing students (Ibid). These figures paint a worrying picture of the region’s ability to supply the health manpower needs of its people.