The following questions and answers may assist other users get the most out
of the statistics on this page.
How many nurses do we have in South Africa?
Have a look at the report called "Distribution by Province of Nursing
Manpower versus the Population of South
Africa..." for the latest year published. This
report gives numbers in the various broad categories of qualified persons and
those still in training. This report also gives a comprehensive
breakdown of the numbers by province and gender. At the bottom of the
report it provides ratios of population to qualified
nurse.
The report "Growth in the Registers and Rolls..." will also give you the
same total numbers, but without all of the above interesting details.
Are the numbers of nurses increasing or decreasing?
The report called "Growth in the Registers and Rolls..." in the Time Series
Statistics near the top of the page will show you exactly that. It has
separate charts for qualified persons and for those still in training.
What do you mean by "Time Series Statistics"?
These reports all show how various numbers have changed over a period of
years. If available, we try to give comparative numbers for the last ten years in these
reports.
In the case of qualified persons, do the numbers
represent ONLY those persons who are employed in nursing?
Not at all. The numbers represent those persons who are registered with the South African Nursing Council. At present, the Nursing
Council does not keep record of who is (or is not) employed in nursing.
It is a legal requirement that a person must be registered before
he/she can be employed in nursing. The numbers therefore represent:
Do the numbers include nurses employed in both the
public and the private health care sectors?
Yes they do. However they ALSO include persons who are not employed
in nursing at all - see the answer to the previous question.
Do the reports include midwives?
The majority of midwives are included under the heading Registered Persons
in the reports. There are a handful of Enrolled Midwives who for lack of
space are included under the heading Enrolled Nurses - which heading should
(correctly) be Enrolled Nurses and/or Enrolled Midwives.
Why are the total figures for persons in training less
than the total figures reported by the Nursing Education Institutions?
This is quite possible if you are using figures from the report "Growth in
the Registers and Rolls..." or one of the "Geographical Distribution..."
reports. Both these reports try to give a picture of the "possible"
nursing resources (practitioners and learners) in South Africa. In such
reports, each individual can only be include once -
otherwise the figures would be incorrect (inflated).
The best way to illustrate this problem is to take the example of students
engaged in the Bridging Course for Enrolled Nurses leading to Registration as
a General Nurse. All these students must already be Enrolled Nurses - and will
be indicated as such in the report. To include these students a second
time under Student Nurses would obviously lead to errors and an inflated total
number of "possible" nursing resources.
Some of the charts look just like PowerPoint
presentations. Can I use them in a slide show?
Yes you can display the charts in reports such as "Growth in the Registers
and Rolls..." as a slide show. This can be done straight off the Nursing
Council website by clicking on the Slide Show icon at the bottom right
of the window. However, the response time will be rather slow unless you
have a fast Internet connection. A better way to do this is to
open the report and then to choose the option in your web browser to Edit the
web page with ®PowerPoint. Immediately, save the report to your own
computer as a ®PowerPoint presentation (to the folder of your choosing).
You can then use it as you would any other ®PowerPoint presentation.
Please note that this functionality has only been tested with the more recent
versions of ®Internet Explorer and ®PowerPoint and it may not work correctly
using other browser/presentation software.
Some of the tables look just like spreadsheets.
Can I manipulate the data for planning purposes?
Yes, the charts have been published in the form of spreadsheets. You
should be able to copy and paste the spreadsheet data into many spreadsheet
programs. Another
possible way is to open the spreadsheet in edit mode from your browser and to
save a copy to your own hard drive. You can then use it as you would any
other spreadsheet. Please note that this functionality has only been tested
with the more recent versions of ®Internet Explorer and ®Excel and it may
not work correctly using other browser/spreadsheet software.
I see all the reports are copyright. May I use
them?
All of the reports and statistics published on the website are
copyright. They have been published with the specific intention of
enabling education and planning for nursing and midwifery in South Africa to
be based on accurate and reliable information. You are therefore granted
permission to use them as research and planning resources and to make
reference to them in your own original works. You may also reproduce the
tables and charts for educational and planning purposes. You may do all
this provided that you acknowledge SA Nursing Council as the source of the
material.
You may not remove the SA Nursing Council copyright notice from any of the slides
or tables and
do not change any of the information! Your co-operation in this regard
will be greatly appreciated.
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