During the Elim Nurses’ Moral Regeneration day held at the hospital last Thursday, the nursing staff made a pledge that they will continue to handle patients with special care.

In the recent past, Nurses’ Moral Regeneration Day was commonly known as Nurses’ Prayer Day.

The event was also attended by nurses from the Hayani, Louis Trichardt Memorial, Tshilidzini and Donald Fraser Hospitals.

With the theme: Workplace relationship as an environment ingredient that affects quality care, nurses of Elim hospital claimed to have intensified their nursing care through touching, greeting and smiling at patients.

"We are committing ourselves to handle the sick and injured with care and love. We want to do small things in great ways until our services speak for us in- and outside our province," says manager of corporate services Mrs SN Muthambi on behalf of the CEO of the hospital, Dr Madzivhandila.

Muthambi said that total quality care at the health facility was possible as the majority of their health practitioners were not ‘oxygen thieves’.

A junior nursing staff member, Itani Thalifhi, said that it was at Elim hospital where she realised that quality care rests in her hands. "It is not a myth that patients are here for us and we are here for them. We will continue to handle them (patients) with special care," she said.

As a guest speaker, retired educator and currently businesswoman Mrs Mokgadi Tlakula also emphasized the importance of total quality nursing care, unity and working as a team.

"How many times have we heard of patients falling from an ambulance, while the nurse was sitting with the driver," she asked.

According to Tlakula, nurses of today are faced with more challenges than in the past and cited working with patients suffering from the HI virus and drug-resistant TB as examples.