News / National
Student nurses hold strip party at hospital
13 Sep 2020 at 07:03hrs | Views
A group of female student nurses at the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) has been detained for a week as punishment after it held what authorities said was a wild striptease party in one of the hostels while celebrating the completion of their three-year course.
In July, UBH was identified as the Covid-19 treatment centre in Bulawayo, where residents who test positive have been referred for treatment and isolation.
The incident happened last week after the final-year students received their results and allegedly hastily organised a party.
They reportedly smuggled alcohol to spice up the occasion.
However, the student nurses were caught by hospital authorities, who then decided to punish the whole class by withholding their certificates and send them back to the wards for a further week as punishment.
The students were supposed to vacate the institution on September 3, but will only get their certificates tomorrow.
UBH acting chief executive officer Dr Narcisius Dzvanga confirmed the punishment that was meted out on the "wayward" student nurses.
"I got that news but they are going home on Monday (tomorrow). It was a disciplinary issue, nothing personal. They passed and they started misbehaving within the complex and it was decided that releasing people into the world with that attitude was not good. So, it was just a punitive measure taken," he said.
When asked about the "misdemeanours", Dr Dzvanga was, however, not keen to elaborate, although the affected nurses said it was after they held the strip party.
"It was just incorrect behaviour that we can't talk about; they were over-celebrating. They are people who were exiting a training programme and they celebrated in an unbecoming manner, so we felt we had to punish them a little. Nursing requires professionalism and no matter how much you are celebrating, there are some things you cannot do. We wanted to show them that the certificates that they had got have ethics and professionalism that go along with them. So, we decided that they hang around and go and work in the hospital even though they had finished before they are released, just to correct their misdemeanours."
However, some of the affected students said it was wrong for the institution to punish the whole.
"All female students were punished, there was some sort of celebration that was done after getting results, so all of us were punished yet our contracts ended on September 3 2020."
In July, UBH was identified as the Covid-19 treatment centre in Bulawayo, where residents who test positive have been referred for treatment and isolation.
The incident happened last week after the final-year students received their results and allegedly hastily organised a party.
They reportedly smuggled alcohol to spice up the occasion.
However, the student nurses were caught by hospital authorities, who then decided to punish the whole class by withholding their certificates and send them back to the wards for a further week as punishment.
The students were supposed to vacate the institution on September 3, but will only get their certificates tomorrow.
"I got that news but they are going home on Monday (tomorrow). It was a disciplinary issue, nothing personal. They passed and they started misbehaving within the complex and it was decided that releasing people into the world with that attitude was not good. So, it was just a punitive measure taken," he said.
When asked about the "misdemeanours", Dr Dzvanga was, however, not keen to elaborate, although the affected nurses said it was after they held the strip party.
"It was just incorrect behaviour that we can't talk about; they were over-celebrating. They are people who were exiting a training programme and they celebrated in an unbecoming manner, so we felt we had to punish them a little. Nursing requires professionalism and no matter how much you are celebrating, there are some things you cannot do. We wanted to show them that the certificates that they had got have ethics and professionalism that go along with them. So, we decided that they hang around and go and work in the hospital even though they had finished before they are released, just to correct their misdemeanours."
However, some of the affected students said it was wrong for the institution to punish the whole.
"All female students were punished, there was some sort of celebration that was done after getting results, so all of us were punished yet our contracts ended on September 3 2020."
Source - sundaymail
