admin, Health and Child Welfare Minister Dr Henry Madzorera has said.
In an interview, Dr Madzorera said the nurse training programme was meant to sustain the private health delivery system as well as other countries within and outside the Sadc region.
Exporting health labour, the minister said, would give Zimbabweans and their African counterparts the opportunity to boost their economies and fill the international health gap.
“We are not going to reduce the number of our intakes. We will maintain the number from the previous years. In fact, if we had funds we were going to increase our intakes,” he said.
Dr Madzorera said his ministry was not responsible for the nurses’ fate after graduation. He said their task as a ministry was to ensure that the trainees got the much needed knowledge on nursing matters.
“We try to separate issues to do with training and employment. Besides, the world needs millions of health workers. As Africans we have an opportunity to fill in that gap.
“Our hope is to see some of these nurses going international so that they get exposure. They will acquire international skills, which will benefit the nation when they return. This is not only my desire, but the Government’s as well,” he said.
Deputy Minister Douglas Mombeshora said the ministry had completed crafting modalities for the export of thousands of jobless nurses to other countries across the world.
Deputy Minister Mombeshora said the document had already been submitted to the Attorney General’s Office, adding that once the AG’s Office finished scrutinising and approves the document it would then be submitted to Cabinet for final approval.
Dr Madzorera said hospitals received more than 3 000 applications from aspiring candidates across the nation willing to train as nurses.
He said out of the 3 000 applicants, the ministry only enrolled 1 500.
“We cannot reduce the number of students for the nurse training programme. This is because the number that we train is already too small,” said Dr Madzorera.
He, however, confirmed that there were some problems encountered in the training process.
“There are a few bottlenecks, which include residential accommodation for various groups among other problems. However, we cannot say these challenges are hindering our progress in the training programme.
“We will not give these as excuses to reduce our intakes at any of our training centres across the country,” he said.
Online Reporter