By Maria Hlonipho

The South African National Council for the Blind was honoured by a visit of a delegation of twelve ophthalmic nursing students and two lecturers from the Institute of Health Sciences in Molepolole, Botswana from the 7th to the 11th of March 2011. These students were professional nurses, registered for the post basic course in Ophthalmic Nursing and were in their last semester of an 18 month course. The Bureau for the Prevention of Blindness coordinated the participation of various stakeholders in Council and at the University of Pretoria.

The purpose of the educational tour was to understand Council’s role in community eye care and to acquire practical experience in surgical eye care.

Jace Nair, our National Executive Director and the management of Council’s various divisions delivered presentations on the following topics:
• An overview of Council with the focus on our governance, projects and fundraising;
• Our comprehensive Eye Care Programme;
• Our Community Development Programme;
• Orientation and Mobility Services; and,
• Our Community Based Rehabilitation Services.

The nurses visited our Resource Centre, the Itireleng Community Project in Ga-Rankuwa as well as our training facilities at Optima where they received a practical demonstration on Orientation and Mobility. They also visited the Tshwane and Kalafong hospitals to observe operations for cataracts, and special operations such as corneal transplants, repair of detached retinas, phaco-emulsifications, plastic surgery on eyelids, etc.

The Botswana delegation also shared their experiences in eye care services and training of nurses with our staff and acknowledged that they benefited a lot from their visit. The tour leader expressed their appreciation of the clinical learning opportunities presented by Council and the hospitals and promised to visit again every two years when they have another intake of ophthalmic nursing students.