The building boasts 10 tutorial and lecture halls equipped with state-of-the-art equipment, a postgraduate seminar room, a resource centre, hi-tech simulation rooms, two anatomy and physiology laboratories and a problem-based learning centre.

“Although this building was completed in 2015, we felt it was important to have a public occasion

to celebrate the building, the staff and students, and the accomplishments of Nursing Sciences over the past 30 years or so,” said Prof Helen Drummond, acting dean of the Faculty of Agriculture, Science and Technology.

Delivering dynamic nurses

 

Nursing Science’s main purpose is to deliver dynamic nurses who will contribute expertly to healthcare in their communities. With this in mind, it offers a Bachelor of Nursing Science degree as well as honours, master’s and doctoral degrees in nursing science.

 

According to Dr Hunadi Rakhudu, head of Nursing Science, the department’s vision is to grow into a school and later into a fully fledged faculty. This vision is well on track. In addition to the new building, Nursing Science has signed various memoranda of understanding (MOUs) with other institutions, including McMaster and Johns Hopkins universities in the United States.

 

These MOUs have enabled staff from the NWU and North West Provincial Nursing College to attend annual practical training abroad. Six nursing lecturers attended the Johns Hopkins University for a PhD programme and have since graduated.

 

Hope for the future

 

Speaking at the official opening of the building, Prof Kgwadi took the opportunity to express optimism about the future of the university.

 

“This is simultaneously a message of gratitude for what has been achieved in the past, and a message of hope for what we are working towards. The North-West University is a place for optimists and problem-solvers, a place for achievers and leaders. Leave your comfort zones behind and embrace the challenges that no longer merely ‘lie ahead’, but are already part of our lives,” he said.

 

Also attending was the North West Province MEC for Health, Dr Magome Masike. In his address, he congratulated management and stakeholders on a “ground-breaking achievement which will surely contribute significantly” to eliminating the national health professions deficit.

 

A medical doctor for more than 30 years, Dr Masike said he appreciated that the university takes nursing education seriously. ”As a country we are in dire need of nurses to combat diseases and improve the state of preventative healthcare rather than having a curative model.”

 

The school of nursing science has 19 academic and two support staff members. There are four professors, six doctors and seven master’s degree lecturers. The school has more than 350 registered students at different levels for 2017.