Team 2020, a voluntary non profit association of activists concerned with administrative justice and devolution of employment opportunities, welcomes the resumption of Diploma in General Nursing May 2020 Intake interviews which are set to run from 11th to 15th May across the country’s 22 Nursing Schools.

In particular, Team 2020 congratulates the Ministry of Health and Child Care (MOHCC) for decentralizing the interview process to all the nursing schools.

This is a departure from the January 2020 intake where United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) and Parirenyatwa Hospital were the only interview centres. This decentralisation is a step in the right direction.

We further congratulate MOHCC for allowing shortlisted candidates to attend interviews at any interview center near them.

This is a welcome move in times of economic hardships, escalating transport costs and travel restrictions.

We would however be delighted if this becomes a permanent feature of the nursing students recruitment exercise.

Team 2020 notes a few but critical administrative challenges that need urgent attention.

1. We note that private hospitals like Hwange have been designated as interview centres but no MOHCC officials are present to conduct interviews. This has resulted in applicants from Hwange, Binga and Victoria Falls traveling in vain.
2. We further note that a number of applicants who were previously notified of successful shortlisting are being turned away by interviewing panels because their names are not appearing on the list given by MOHCC. Such proof of earlier communication on shortlisting as portal account notification or SMS are not being accepted by interviewing panels.

3) We further note that while the official requirements for registration include a maximum of two Ordinary Level sittings, some interview centres initially rejected those with two sittings.

4) There has been low turnout of candidates in rural interviewing centres such as St Anne’s in Mangwe District. This is despite excellent performance of O’ Level candidates in the area over the past few years.

This calls for MOHCC to locate every clinic and hospital as an information dissemination center for the nursing students recruitment process.

Further collaboration with Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education should result in the use of schools as information dissemination centers.

In conclusion, we reiterate our call for MOHCC to implement devolution of power in the nursing students recruitment process. Every nursing school must be allowed to manage it’s own applications portal just like universities do.

We further call upon MOHCC to develop internal capacity for website management in order to eliminate communication time delays incurred while consulting contractors at Chinhoyi University of Technology.

TEAM 2020- IZENZO KUNGEMAZWI

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