As the world marks International Nurses Day on May 12, South Africa (SA) is shining a spotlight on nurses working to bring healthcare closer to underserved communities.<\/p>\n
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The day, celebrated annually on the birthday of modern nursing pioneer Florence Nightingale, is being observed this year under the theme \u201cOur Nurses, Our Future: Empowered nurses save lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In SA, nurse-led Mpathy Clinics are gaining attention for helping nurses run affordable primary healthcare facilities in township communities.<\/p>\n
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Speaking during an interview, Managing Director of Rhiza Ventures ,Linda Dunkley said the initiative is about more than recognition for nurses.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe need to back recognition with real action. We need better support, better opportunities and greater investment in nurses,\u201d Dunkley said.<\/p>\n
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Rhiza Ventures, together with its non-profit arm Rhiza Babuyile, supports the Mpathy Clinic network by helping nurses establish and manage clinics, while also providing mentorship, operational support and business guidance.<\/p>\n
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The clinics, some of which operate from converted container structures, are aimed at improving access to healthcare in communities where public facilities are often overstretched.<\/p>\n
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Dunkley said empowering nurses to become clinic owners could help reduce pressure on the public healthcare system while improving access to preventative and chronic care services.<\/p>\n
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Her comments come as the World Health Organisation warns that Africa still faces major shortages in healthcare workers despite increasing numbers of trained professionals across the continent.<\/p>\n
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–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":34339,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-34338","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"World marks International Nurses Day","published_date":"2026-05-12 18:12:34","news_description":"World marks International Nurses Day","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34340,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/34338\/revisions\/34340"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=34338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}