Every day, across South Africa, nurses stand at the frontline of saving lives. They are the steady hands in moments of uncertainty, the compassionate voices during times of fear, and the dedicated professionals who work tirelessly to ensure that patients receive the care they need when it matters most.
As the world commemorates International Nurses Day 2026 under the theme “Our Nurses. Our Future. Empowered Nurses Save Lives,” the South African National Blood Service pays tribute to the remarkable nurses whose compassion, strength, and dedication continue to save lives every single day.
Behind every successful blood donation is a nurse who chose to care.
A nurse who arrives before sunrise. A nurse who comforts anxious donors with a smile. A nurse who stands for hours ensuring every unit of blood collected is safe enough to save a mother, a child, a trauma victim, or a cancer patient. These are the quiet acts of heroism that often go unseen, yet they change lives every day.
At SANBS, nurses are more than healthcare professionals. They are the heartbeat of the organisation’s lifesaving mission. They carry the emotional weight of the work with grace and continue to show up with compassion even on the hardest days.
“Nurses carry the human side of healthcare. They give comfort in moments of fear and hope in moments of uncertainty. At SANBS, we see their sacrifices, their long hours, and the care they pour into every donor and patient. Today we honour them not only for what they do, but for who they are.” said Monique Schreiner, Senior Manager: Donor Relations.
Every drop of blood collected carries the fingerprints of a nurse who cared enough to make sure someone else gets another chance at life.
Whether working at donor centres, mobile clinics, community blood drives, or behind the scenes ensuring quality and safety, SANBS nurses continue to serve with unwavering commitment. Their work demands patience, emotional strength, skill, and empathy. Yet despite the pressure and responsibility they carry, they continue to give so much of themselves to others.
“There is something deeply powerful about the work our nurses do. They stand beside people in vulnerable moments and remind them that humanity still exists through kindness and care. SANBS is proud to walk alongside these incredible professionals who continue to keep the spirit of service alive,” said Monique Schreiner, Senior Manager: Donor Relations.
International Nurses Day is a moment to pause and recognise the people who dedicate their lives to caring for others, often placing the needs of patients and donors before their own. It is a reminder that healthcare is not only built through medicine and technology, but through compassion, patience, and human connection.
This year’s theme speaks directly to the future of healthcare. Empowered nurses strengthen healthcare systems, uplift communities, and save lives. Their wellbeing and support matter because when nurses are valued, entire communities benefit.
For SANBS, celebrating nurses is deeply personal. These are the individuals who hold hands during difficult moments, calm fears with gentle words, and continue to give their all so that others may live.
To every nurse who continues to wear their uniform with pride, compassion, and courage, thank you.
Thank you for the sacrifices no one sees. Thank you for the comfort you give so freely. Thank you for keeping hope alive. And thank you for helping keep the blood of life flowing across South Africa.
As demand for healthcare services continues to grow in South Africa, scalable, community-based healthcare models are playing an increasingly important role in improving access to care.
Viatris Inc. (Nasdaq: VTRS), a global healthcare company, commenced its partnership with South African non-profit organisation Rhiza Babuyile in 2020 to support scalable, community-based models that bring care closer to patients. This includes a growing network of nurse-led clinics, which are helping to close critical access gaps while strengthening local healthcare capacity.
Today, six clinics supported by Viatris, across South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa, are operational, forming part of a broader network of community-based healthcare programmes that collectively reach thousands of patients annually.
This expansion reflects Viatris’ broader global ambition to deliver sustainable access to healthcare at scale – ensuring that patients, regardless of geography, can access the medicines and services they need. This ambition reflects Viatris’ mission to empower people worldwide to live healthier at every stage of life.
“Across the world, healthcare systems are under increasing pressure, and the need for sustainable, scalable solutions has never been greater,” said Arvind Kanda, Head of ARV/API SA and SSA. “Our focus is on building healthier communities by expanding access to medicines, and empowering healthcare providers, especially nurses, who are essential to delivering care. By supporting locally driven models that provide care directly to communities, we can help build stronger, more resilient health systems for the future.”
This International Nurses Day, Viatris is recognising the vital role nurses play in expanding access to quality, sustainable healthcare – particularly in underserved communities where they are often the first and most trusted point of care.
In South Africa, nurses form the backbone of the healthcare system, accounting for approximately 80% of the country’s healthcare workforce and serving as the primary point of care for millions of patients[i]. This makes their role in community-based care models not only essential, but transformative. Globally, nurses represent the largest segment of the health workforce and are indispensable in addressing inequities in access to care – a role that is especially critical in underserved communities.[ii]
One such example is Sr. Nompumelelo Mudalahothe, who began her journey as a nurse at the Rhiza Babuyile Diepsloot clinic and has since progressed to become a healthcare manager overseeing the Mpathy nursepreneur clinics. Her journey reflects how investing in nurse-led models can unlock both improved patient outcomes and meaningful career pathways.
She says, “In many communities, nurses are the first, and sometimes only, point of access to healthcare.” She also explains that she became a nurse to make a difference in people’s lives: “Working in my own community allows me to do that every day. The clinic is more than just a place to get treatment, it’s a place where they feel heard, supported and understood.”
Rhiza Babuyile founder and board member Alef Meulenberg says one such example is when a patient brought a 4-month-old baby to the clinic. “The baby was non-responsive and would have died. Our nurse was already on her way home, but opened the clinic, stabilised the baby and afterwards referred the patient to a nearby hospital for further treatment. This baby is now fortunately doing well and has the chance for a long, healthy life.”
The clinics themselves continue to evolve, expanding beyond primary healthcare to offer services such as chronic disease management and access to chronic medication, as well as optometry services and, in one facility, x-ray capabilities. These integrated services are critical in addressing the growing burden of non-communicable diseases and improving continuity of care at community level.
Viatris’ approach is grounded in its long-term vision to be a trusted healthcare partner – one that combines global expertise with local insight to improve health outcomes and expand access in a meaningful, sustainable way. As the company continues to evolve its portfolio and strengthen its global footprint, this commitment remains central to its path forward.
[i]Abrahams, F. (2025). Assessing the composition of nurses in South Africa versus global standards. International Journal of Africa Nursing Sciences.
[ii]World Health Organization (2020).State of the World’s Nursing 2020: Investing in Education, Jobs and Leadership
More than 33 000 healthcare workers helped patients more than 20 million times in the Western Cape in the last financial year. (Photo: QuickNews)
21st April 2026
By Christina Pitt
The Western Cape health department is ramping up its workforce with 800 new frontline posts. After years of austerity and with long lists of vacancies, questions now turn to how soon the new posts will translate into staff on the ground.
The Western Cape health department is adding more than 800 staff to frontline and support services in a bid to strengthen a health system in which hiring has been stifled by years of austerity.
Health MEC Mireille Wenger announced a recruitment drive, which includes 316 nurses, 124 doctors and 80 emergency medical personnel. For medical workers to have more time at their patients’ bedsides, she said this plan also targets 38 allied health professionals, such as physiotherapists and dieticians, alongside 278 administrative and management staff.
As it stands, more than 33 000 staff in the province helped patients more than 20 million times in the last year, according to Wenger. For public hospitals and clinics, the news of the new jobs offers some hope that the constant pressure on staff capacity will be relieved.
One example of where the new jobs may make a difference is with surgical backlogs in the province. Of the nearly 100 000 people waiting for surgery in 2025, 87 975 have been waiting for more than a year, while 20 027 have been on the list for more than 60 months. Some of these people entered the system during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic and have been left in limbo through years of budget cycles and hiring freezes.
The budget paradox
While governance has been poor in most of South Africa’s nine provincial health departments, with corruption and looting in Gauteng being a particular concern, the Western Cape health department has received seven consecutive clean audits, maintained stable leadership and largely avoided controversy.
As part of a total R106.8 billion package over three years, the Western Cape health department’s 2026/27 budget is R34.47 billion, which is a 6.25% increase from last year.
When adjusted for inflation, provincial health budgets have been falling for most of the last decade. This has contributed to constrained hiring budgets and exacerbated staff shortages. The tide finally turned with above-inflation increases in the 2025 and 2026 budgets – although belts remain very tight.
Professor Alex van den Heever, Chair of Social Security Systems Administration and Management Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, said that the Western Cape’s health department is a relatively well-run machine yet is dogged by underfunding.
Understanding this requires a look at how provincial health departments are funded.
While provincial health departments get some funds via sources such as provincial revenue and conditional grants, most of their funding flows from the province’s slice of the national budget. For the 2026/27 financial year, the country’s nine provinces was allocated R810.5 billion.
How much each province gets is determined by the provincial equitable share formula, which has been under review since 2015. The provincial equitable share formula considers factors, such as the size of the school-aged population and the number of people living in poverty. Its health component considers factors like the population without medical aid, adjusted for health risk, medical aid membership, and clinic and hospital visits.
Provinces decide how they divide their share of the budget between their provincial departments.
There are however some issues with the provincial equitable share formula. Firstly, it makes use of certain data from the South African census, which means that the information does not reflect current demographic and service realities, said Van den Heever (the census is conducted only every 10 years). Secondly, the usefulness of the results from the latest census of 2022 is in question because certain data sets, such as income, mortality, fertility, and employment figures, were missing.
As a result, National Treasury has been unable to fully update its calculations to factor in the census 2022 data, contributing to a lag in how population changes are reflected in budget formulas. As far as we can tell, National Treasury has relied on datasets updated at different times in the year, such as Stats SA’s mid-year population estimates, allowing it to phase in changes gradually rather than introduce sudden adjustments.
Broadly, Van den Heever said the result is a system forced to pick up the tab for a population the national budget hasn’t yet acknowledged. Citing an example linked to health, he says the formula ignores patients who travel from other provinces to access specialist care at tertiary hubs like Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.
The claw-back
Some of the vacancies in the Western Cape health department reflect periods when the government cut funding due to broader economic challenges, Doctor Saadiq Kariem, the department’s Chief Operating Officer, told Spotlight.
Indeed, between 2021 and 2024, the province absorbed an R8.4 billion reduction in its budget allocation.
This has forced leadership to make some tough calls, including vacancies for frontline services like health. Kariem explained: “It was a process of consciously delaying the filling of those posts so that we could make up for the loss in funding. Sometimes we, along with local managers, decided to shift posts from a vacancy to another part of the service platform based on service needs and pressures.”
“You know, these are heart wrenching choices because all of those posts are absolutely essential and I know that not filling them will have an impact on the service provision and result in poorer health outcomes. So yes, the austerity measures had a significant impact on the post filling rate,” he added.
According to the health department’s annual report, 3 737 people left the department’s employment in the 2024/2025 financial year. By the end of March 2025, 2 772 funded posts remained vacant.
Nationally, vacancies among nursing staff are particularly acute. As of 2023, across enrolled, auxiliary, community service, professional, primary healthcare and specialist nurses, there were about 14 000 vacant posts across the country.
Sabelo Ntshanga, Western Cape provincial secretary of the Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa, said burnout caused by workload is the main driver of attrition.
“The reality is that it’s not being filled quickly. It takes up to a year sometimes while the demand in the communities remains high,” he said. “Burnout is underreported and when the nurses get sick from burnout, that’s another burden on top of the shortage of staff.”
Overall, while the 800 new posts represent a step in the right direction, it appears to be more about holding the line than an actual growth spurt. As Kariem says, it represents an effort to “claw back” towards a stable staffing baseline while attempting to invest in future service capacity.
The red tape
Things won’t change overnight though. Wenger noted in her speech that “it will take time to fill these posts”.
Kariem explained that recruitment follows a multi-stage process as vacancies are advertised, followed by shortlisting and interviews. Final appointments then require approval at different levels of the system, depending on the seniority and specialty of the role. “We see delays throughout the process,” he said. “Once there is the ability to advertise a post, we have to give sufficient time for an advert to run… then for interviews and for permissions to follow.”
This means that even funded posts can remain unfilled for extended periods as they move through administrative and approval processes.
Adding further delays to an already complex process, the National Treasury and the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) advised cost-containment measures in October 2023, which was extended until March 2025. It required additional approvals before recruitment could proceed.
Wenger bemoaned these regulations when it was rolled out. “The DPSA’s recent regulations, intended to slow down recruitment, are doing real harm to large service delivery departments like Health. Staff retire or move on, and yet our system lacks the agility to replace them fast enough. This leaves remaining healthcare workers overburdened, and services strained,” she said.
At the same time, not all vacancies can be filled due to shortages of suitably qualified candidates, particularly specialist nurses. Kariem explained that this in part reflects longer-term gaps in investment in postgraduate training. He said the department is using recent budget increases to strengthen human resources information systems to better identify skills gaps and fill vacancies.
These staffing pressures also affect training and retention. Ntshanga said they limit the system’s ability to release nurses for professional development, constraining career progression and contributing to low morale.
At Groote Schuur Hospital, the department noted that nursing staff shortages have affected multiple units across the hospital in 2024/25, contributing to reduced service capacity.
For Ntshanga, the new posts are a small drop in a very large bucket. “As much as it is a good deed from the department, it doesn’t come close to what we need on the shop floor,” he said.
G-Chem Aquacare partners with Odyssee Environnement to improve water treatment in Free State hospitals
G-Chem Aquacare and Odyssee project team members on a Free State hospital site during the pre-selection visit in 2025
Local industrial water treatment specialist G-Chem Aquacare is partnering with global specialists to improve water, energy and carbon efficiency within Free State hospitals.
Known as the FASEP ODYAFRICA project, this groundbreaking initiative is supported by the French government through the FASEP (Fonds d’Études et d’Aide au Secteur Privé) programme, investing more than €500 000 (approximately R9.6-million) and led by Odyssee Environnement, a French industrial water treatment company specialising in hydroethical, sustainable industrial water technology and chemistry solutions.
The project represents the first deployment of Odyssee Environnement’s monitoring technologies in South Africa, combining the company’s advanced water treatment solutions with strong local implementation partner G-Chem Aquacare, and institutional collaboration with the Free State public healthcare sector.
Local hospitals rely heavily on water-intensive systems including cooling towers, steam boilers and heating infrastructure, which must be carefully managed. Without correct water treatment and monitoring, scale formation, corrosion and microbiological growth cause infrastructure failure: compromising hygiene, energy efficiency, water consumption, budgets and safety.
According to G-Chem Aquacare’s CEO Shaun Golding, South African hospitals traditionally use manual monitoring and water treatment: “The Odyssee project is data-driven and automated. Specialised monitoring equipment, sensors and smart metering will track key metrics such as water consumption, steam production and system performance in real-time,” Golding explains, adding that flow meters and other instrumentation feed data into a remote monitoring platform, allowing stakeholders to identify inefficiencies and optimise system operation.
After installation and commissioning, the project will kick off with a six-month baseline period using traditional water treatment chemistry. From December, this will transition to Odyssee film-forming amine (FFA) technology.
“This forms a protective molecular film on internal system surfaces, improving heat transfer efficiency while significantly reducing corrosion, scaling and energy losses. During the remaining 18 months, the project team will demonstrate the benefits of the French film-forming technology in a day-to-day hospital environment,” Golding advises.
A partnership built on technical expertise
G-Chem Aquacare’s relationship with Odyssee Environnement dates back to 2018. “From the very beginning, they demonstrated strong technical expertise, a high level of operational discipline, and a clear alignment with our hydroethical approach to water treatment. Together with their local knowledge and reliability, this made G-Chem Aquacare an obvious choice for this project,” explains Xavier Labeille, Export Director of Odyssee Environnement.
Early groundwork for the current project began in 2023 – 2024, with a preliminary site survey at various Free State hospitals. A formal joint site visit by both the French and South African project teams followed in September 2025.
The choice of the healthcare sector was driven by Labeille: “This decision aligns with the FASEP programme requirements, which are dedicated to public sector projects. Hospitals represent a fully public, structured and accessible environment. In addition, Odyssee Environnement has strong operational experience within hospitals in France, making this sector both relevant and technically controlled for deploying advanced monitoring technologies and chemical solutions,” he advises.
Golding explains that the Free State healthcare environment also presents a diverse mix of infrastructure and operational conditions. Initially, five hospitals were identified as potential participants. Detailed site inspections finally shortlisted three – each representing a different operational scenario.
Three Free State hospitals
At the primary site, Universitas Academic hospital in Bloemfontein, the full suite of monitoring and optimisation technologies will be installed across its boiler, cooling tower and closed-loop systems. This includes advanced sensors, specialised monitoring equipment and smart metering to demonstrate the full capability of the technology.
The secondary site – Pelonomi hospital in Bloemfontein – will receive a streamlined version with fewer monitoring devices and a simplified equipment set-up. This will demonstrate that while advanced monitoring can enhance performance, significant improvements can still be achieved through the chemistry programme, particularly through application of the film-forming technology developed by Odyssee Environnement.
At the third site – the Central/ Regional Laundry – the partners will focus on the laundry steam boiler system – which represents another important area of energy and water consumption within the context of healthcare.
Partner on the ground
As the local implementation, technical and operational partner, G-Chem Aquacare will play a vital role in the long-term success of the project. Responsibilities include on-site technical implementation of treatment programmes, system optimisation and operational support, monitoring and performance validation, training of local maintenance teams and ongoing technical collaboration with Odyssee Environnement.
“We understand the operational realities within South African healthcare facilities. Through our local technical teams and service infrastructure, we can provide on-the-ground support, regular monitoring and rapid response,” Golding observes.
The project emphasises knowledge transfer and capacity-building, ensuring that local teams are equipped to sustain improvements. G-Chem Aquacare will therefore liaise with hospital technical teams, engineers, facility managers and maintenance staff.
Training will focus on correct operation of the monitoring equipment, interpretation of system data, and management of the water treatment programme. In addition, G-Chem Aquacare will provide ongoing technical support through regular site visits, performance reviews and remote monitoring of system data.
Scalable and sustainable
Labeille points out that this project demonstrates water, energy and environmental performance: “Our objective is to establish a replicable model that can be deployed across Africa, across institutional infrastructure and industrial applications. The goal is to deliver measurable results and enable scalable, sustainable water management solutions.”
For Golding, the project reflects G-Chem Aquacare’s ongoing commitment to partnering with global technology leaders: ”We are proud to contribute to a project which not only improves operational performance but also supports the broader goals of environmental stewardship and responsible resource management,” he notes.
Technical events and workshops hosted in collaboration with universities, energy management specialists and other industry stakeholders will share the project’s objectives, progress and successes.
“We already consider G-Chem Aquacare as our strategic partner in South Africa. This project strengthens our collaboration and creates a solid foundation for further joint development across the public and industrial sectors,” Labeille concludes.
Levels of cortisol, often referred to as the “stress hormone,” typically peak in the early morning hours, preparing the body for the day’s challenges by increasing alertness and energy levels, and gradually decline throughout the day, reaching their lowest point around midnight. New research in Nursing Open found an approximately two-fold increase in salivary cortisol levels at midnight in nurses working double shifts compared with those working single shifts.
The study included 52 female nurses, working in rotating shifts. The elevated salivary cortisol levels observed in double-shift workers at midnight suggest that prolonged work schedules are associated with alterations in normal cortisol patterns.
“Our findings indicate that extended shift schedules may be associated with alterations in the circadian pattern of cortisol, reflecting increased physiological strain in nurses working prolonged hours,” said corresponding author Fadime Ulupınar, RN, MSc, of Erzurum Technical University, in Turkey.
Of the nearly 20 000 physicians in a study led by Weill Cornell researchers,43.5% reported feeling burned out.
Photo by Usman Yousaf on Unsplash
Family physicians who report feeling burned out are nearly 1.5 times more likely to change practices or stop practising medicine entirely compared to their peers who don’t report burnout, a study by Weill Cornell Medicine researchers found. Physician burnout can include emotional exhaustion, detachment from patients and colleagues, and feeling that work is no longer meaningful.
The findings, published March 30 in JAMA Internal Medicine, also highlight the consequences for patients: people who lose their family physician may be more likely to visit the emergency room, spend more on health care and be less satisfied with their care than those who keep their doctors.
“To our knowledge, this is the first national-level study examining the association between physician burnout and turnover,” said Dr Amelia Bond, associate professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine, who co-led the study.
To quantify burnout, Dr. Bond and her colleagues turned to the 2016-2020 American Board of Family Medicine surveys, which family physicians must complete to obtain and maintain board certification. As part of the survey, physicians are asked whether they feel burned out or callous.
The researchers then determined whether physicians changed practices or stopped practising altogether in the subsequent year, based on billing patterns in de-identified Medicare data.
Of the nearly 20 000 physicians in the study, 43.5% reported burnout. Doctors under the age of 55 were more likely to report burnout than older doctors, and women were more likely to report burnout than men.
The research suggests that workplace stress may reduce physician retention. Among physicians who reported burnout, 4.8% changed practices versus 3.4% of physicians who did not report burnout; 5.4% of physicians with burnout stopped practising entirely compared to 3.7% of physicians without burnout.
“These findings highlight the urgent need to address work conditions and professional satisfaction for both the stability of the physician workforce and the well-being of patients,” said Dr Dhruv Khullar, associate professor of population health sciences at Weill Cornell Medicine and co-lead on the study.
Physician burnout and turnover have clinical, organisational and economic implications. “The issue definitely warrants more attention,” D. Bond said.
Further investigation could identify practices, systems and policy factors that may reduce rates of physician burnout and turnover. While this study found a correlation, additional work will be needed to establish a causal link between burnout and turnover.
To significantly expand access to affordable, quality primary healthcare in underserved communities, the Cipla Foundation’s Sha’p Left initiative has partnered with the FirstRand Empowerment Foundation (FREF). The partnership aims to aggressively scale the cost-effective nurse-driven surgeries in local communities, across the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
HEALTHCARE CLOSER TO HOME
This collaboration will help to overcome systemic barriers to healthcare, particularly in terms of equitable access for low-income, uninsured individuals. For many people living in peri-urban and rural areas, access to quality primary healthcare services poses a significant challenge. Over-burdened State medical facilities are often congested, resulting in long waiting times for patients.
Sha’p Left is a patient-centred, cost-aware, nurse-driven primary healthcare service, in the heart of local communities. These nurse surgeries are located in easily accessible hubs such as busy taxi ranks to promote ease of access. The greatest benefit of Sha’p Left is that in addition to saving travel time, it helps to empower people both in terms of caring for their health, but also financially: the lack of queues mean that people don’t need to take a full day off work (resulting in a loss of income) to access basic healthcare.
Currently, Sha’p Left serves more than 5 000 patients monthly, with the patient profile comprising a 60% / 40% female / male split. The existing clinics are GMP compliant containerised solutions, as part of environmental sustainability initiatives and lowering overhead costs, solar solutions are being implemented at these clinics.
CHAMPIONING CHANGE
Strengthening community-based primary healthcare supports national health priorities by reducing the burden on State facilities, promotes preventative healthcare and creates an empowering, dignified experience for patients.
The investment by FREF will help Sha’p Left to deploy more nurse surgeries, and these solutions will ultimately help address inequality and reduce poverty as access to quality healthcare is basic human right. The partnership will scale Sha’p Left from 11 to 61 surgeries by the end of 2029.
SUSTAINABLE SOCIAL IMPACT
The business model involves enterprise development in conjunction with qualified, predominantly female clinical nurse practitioners (CNPs) and assists them to establish sustainable, owner-operated clinics in identified communities to provide affordable primary healthcare services.
This fee-for-service model, driven by the “entreprenurses”, provides a dignified and holistic patient experience. The surgeries have dispensing licenses and therefore a consultations includes the necessary medication required, up to Schedule 4 medicines.
The first three nurse surgeries being deployed in 2026, as part of this partnership, are in these areas:
· Senoane (Gauteng)
· KwaNyuswa (KZN)
· Verulam (KZN)
Blending social impact with sustainability creates a blueprint for scaling primary healthcare in South Africa. With FREF’s support, the Sha’p Left model will expand further into communities where access gaps remain widest, ensuring that more South Africans can easily receive the care they need. This investment ensures that good health is not merely a privilege for a select few people, but for all South Africans.
In 2018, 4246 excess hospitalisations occurred among adults over 65 in the US due to power outages
Photo by Camilo Jimenez on Unsplash
Adults over age 65 experience greater numbers of emergency hospitalisations for cardiovascular and respiratory diseases during and after power outages, reports a new study by Heather McBrien of Columbia Mailman School of Public Health, US, and colleagues, published March 12th in the open-access journal PLOS Medicine.
In the US, power outages are becoming increasingly common and longer-lasting due to severe weather events associated with climate change. Studies from New York State have suggested that power outages likely lead to more hospitalisations for cardiovascular and respiratory disease in older adults – due to air conditioners, heaters, phones and medical devices, like oxygen tanks, losing power. Previously, however, researchers did not have sufficient data for national studies of the impacts of power outages on health.
In the new study, researchers identified outages nationwide that occurred in 2018 and used data from 23 million Medicare patients to estimate daily rates of emergency hospitalisations. They found that power outages lasting longer than eight hours were associated with increases in the number of older adults hospitalised for cardiovascular and respiratory disease. Hospital visits for respiratory disease were most likely the day of the outage, while visits for cardiovascular issues were more common the day after. They estimate that 4246 additional hospitalisations occurred in 2018 among adults over age 65 due to power outages.
The researchers conclude that improving the reliability of electric grids would be a key opportunity to support community health and protect older adults. Other interventions, like backup batteries for medical devices and cellphones, or generators for air conditioners and heaters, could also protect the health of vulnerable individuals. In the current study, researchers examined power outages at the county level, but future studies looking at outages and health at the level of the individual could lead to a more accurate understanding of the associated health risks.
The authors add, “We found that across the United States, power outages were related to increased risk of hospitalizations among older adults for cardiovascular and respiratory causes.”
“The risk of hospitalisation for respiratory disease was highest the day of power outage, and for cardiovascular disease it was highest the day after power outages.”
“We find evidence that the larger the proportion of people affected by power outage, the higher the risk of hospitalization for older adults.”
“Power outages are increasing due to climate change-related severe weather and an aging grid. Finding ways to prevent power outages could protect the health of older adults.”
“While our studies keep finding so many downstream consequences of climate change that lead to hospitalisation and death, including this study on power outages, [the US] government continues to repeal regulations protecting the public.”
The South African healthcare system is currently facing a period of intense pressure. Between staffing shortages and a rise in medical legal claims, the gap between basic nursing education and the actual demands of patient care is a major concern. To improve patient safety and support our healthcare workers, we must focus on practical, hands-on experience and constant skill building.
Why nursing challenges matter in South Africa
Nursing errors are rarely the fault of one person. In South Africa, they are usually the result of a system under strain. Nurses are dealing with overcrowded wards, long shifts, and a very high number of patients with complex conditions like HIV and TB. When staff are exhausted and overworked, the risk of making a mistake increases.
These errors have a massive impact. For patients and their families, it leads to a loss of trust. For hospitals, it leads to expensive legal battles. South Africa is currently dealing with billions of Rands in medical claims, but this is money that should be spent on better equipment and hiring more people. If we want a stronger healthcare system, we must reduce the risks that lead to these errors in the first place.
Hands-on training makes the difference
Nursing education has traditionally leaned heavily on theoretical learning, but knowing the theory of a procedure is very different from doing it in a busy hospital. Practical, skills-based training is what helps a nurse transition safely from the classroom to the ward.
Donald McMillan, MD at Allmed
One of the most effective tools for this is simulation-based training. This involves using specialised training rooms that look like real hospital wards, complete with advanced mannequins that can mimic medical emergencies. Here, nurses can practice critical skills like inserting drips, reading ECGs, or managing emergency care in a safe environment. This allows them to build confidence and “muscle memory” before they ever treat a real patient. This type of training is essential for preparing nurses for the high-pressure reality of South African clinics.
Continuous professional development builds confidence
Medicine is always changing. New treatment guidelines, technologies, and medicines are introduced all the time, changing the way care is delivered. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) helps nurses keep pace with these changes, ensuring their skills remain relevant, their knowledge up to date, and their patients receive the best possible care throughout every stage of their careers.
However, CPD is about more than just following rules; it is about building professional confidence. When nurses have the chance to learn new things and specialise in areas like intensive care or pharmacology, they feel more capable and valued. In a country where many nurses choose to work overseas, providing these opportunities for growth at home is a great way to keep our best talent in South Africa.
A systemic approach for better care
Enhancing the quality of nursing care in South Africa requires a coordinated, multi-stakeholder approach. Training institutions, hospital administrators, and regulatory bodies must collaborate to create an ecosystem that supports the nurse at every career stage. This systemic approach should focus on three specific areas:
Integrated mentorship: Establishing formal programmes where expert clinicians provide real-time bedside teaching to new graduates.
Accredited upskilling: Providing accessible pathways for nurses to specialise in critical areas such as ICU, neonatal care, and oncology.
Technological alignment: Utilising digital tools to track competency levels and identify specific areas where additional training is required.
By making practical training and ongoing learning a priority, we do more than just prevent mistakes. We empower our nurses to be the skilled professionals they want to be. When nurses are competent and confident, they provide better care, which helps rebuild public trust and makes the South African healthcare system stronger for everyone.
Researcher demo-ing an early prototype of the robotic medical crash cart. Credit: Cornell Tech
Healthcare workers have an intense workload and often experience mental distress during resuscitation and other critical care procedures. Although researchers have studied whether robots can support human teams in other high-stakes, high-risk settings such as disaster response and military operations, the role of robots in emergency medicine has not been explored.
Enter Angelique Taylor, the Andrew H. and Ann R. Tisch Assistant Professor at Cornell Tech and the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science. She is also an assistant professor in emergency medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine and director of the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Lab (AIRLab) at Cornell Tech.
In a pair of articles published at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) conference on Robot and Human Interactive Communication (RO-MAN) in August 2025, Taylor and her collaborators at Weill Cornell Medicine, associate professor Kevin Ching and assistant professor Jonathan St. George, described research on their new robotic crash cart (RCC) — a robotic version of the mobile drawer unit that holds supplies and equipment needed for a range of medical procedures.
“Healthcare workers may not know or may forget where all the various supplies are located in the cart drawers, and often they’re kind of shuffling through the cart,” Taylor said. This can cause delays during emergency procedures that require iterative tasks with precise timing, exacerbating medical errors and putting patients at risk, she noted.
To create the RCC, Taylor and her team outfitted a standard cart with LED light strips, a speaker, and a touchscreen tablet integrated with the Robot Operating System. This middleware connects computer programs to robot hardware, enabling them to work together to provide users with verbal and nonverbal cues.
During an emergency procedure, a user can request the location of a supply on the tablet. Then the lights around the drawer with that supply blink, or a spoken instruction plays through the speaker. Users can also receive prompts to remind them about necessary medications and recommend supplies.
In their article, “Help or Hindrance: Understanding the Impact of Robot Communication in Action Teams,” Taylor’s team conducted pilot studies of the RCC. One pilot involved 84 participants, aged 21 to 79, about half of whom had a clinical background. Working in groups of 3 to 4, they conducted a series of simulated resuscitation procedures with a manikin patient using three different carts: a RCC with blinking lights for object search and spoken task reminders, a RCC with blinking lights for task reminders and spoken language for object search, or a standard cart.
The team found that participants preferred the RCC that provided verbal and nonverbal cues over no cues with the standard cart — rating it lower in terms of workload and higher in usefulness and ease of use.
“These results were exciting and achieved statistical significance, suggesting that the use of a robot is beneficial,” said Taylor. The article, by Taylor, Ph.D. student Tauhid Tanjim, and colleagues at Weill Cornell, was a Kazuo-Tanie Paper Award finalist, an honor given to the top three papers in their category at the conference.
Similar to the pilot studies, Taylor, along with colleagues at Cornell and Michigan State University, found that the RCC reduced participant workload, depending on whether the robot provided verbal or non-verbal cues. However, they evaluated robots with only one type of cue, not both, and identified room for improvement, particularly in the robot’s visual cues. They are now studying healthcare workers’ impressions of an RCC with multimodal communication.
Taylor hopes that other research teams will start exploring how robots can support healthcare teams in critical care settings. To that end, Taylor and her colleague presented an article at the February 2025 Association for Computing Machinery/IEEE International Conference that offers a toolkit for researchers to build their own RCC.
By Carina Storrs, freelance writer for Cornell Tech.
