Dear Sir/madam

May l bring to your attention the attached image showing one of your Nurses posing for a picture with a patient who is clearly in his final days (palliative care).

The patient is a well know Zimbabwean politician Mr Morgan Tsvangirai who passed away today 14 Feb 18 at the well renowned hospital in Africa WDGMC (South African Hospital).

I am a fellow registered nurse myself and sadly l find the actions of your staff member, a fellow professional colleague to be grossly inapproproiate, unprofessional and in breach of the Nursing profession’s code of conduct. l would like to assume  the local hospital policies/standards of practice have also found this behaviour to be anomalistic.

It has been public knowledge that this popular politician has been suffering from colon  cancer the past 2years and clearly his condition was deteriorating in the past weeks to justify caution against such images for personal gratification and to uphold his right to personal dignity, as a patient, a father to his family and followers.

l would be grateful if you could excogitate this case of unprofessionalism and perhaps we can all learn from this. I would not want to assume such behaviours are acceptable under the SA Nursing council. The image is likely to go viral on social media over the coming few days so perhaps an earlier responds may be called for.

The SA Nursing Council is well respected for its excellence in standards of training and conduct and so producing some of the best nurses and healthcare practitioners out there.

Yours Faithfully

S Masawi