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.” Sunday News
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