A gogo in a million
East Cape family flies in to congratulate new Doctor of Philosophy
APPLAUSE filled the air yesterday as 72-year-old former ward nurse and hospital deputy director Daphne Murray received her doctorate (PhD) from the University of Fort Hare yesterday.
The Abbotsford Christian Centre boomed with delight as graduands and their families and friends watched Murray being capped.
Murray studied for her doctorate after her retirement as a hospital deputy director at Cecilia Makiwane Hospital in 2007.
The university was holding its second graduation ceremony in East London, where it is expected to cap more than 2 900 graduates this season.
Mqanduli-born Murray told the Saturday Dispatch that obtaining her doctorate had not been a definite goal of hers.
Murray said she felt she had reached the ceiling in her career when she was appointed a hospital deputy director.
She had never envisioned herself becoming an academic.
“I really cannot tell you how this has happened. I was happy to go enjoy my retirement, I was ready to fold my career when I was called by the University of Fort Hare to come and assist with record-keeping of students in 2009.
“The university was facing losing the nursing department I came in to assist. The duties grew on me. I got inspired to teach and to teach nursing management and that was the day I decided to study,” said Murray.
The new Doctor of Philosophy in Health Sciences was accompanied by her daughter Amanda and sons Manwell, Ricardo, Alleston and Tim Wilson, her husband William , and her daughter-in-law Charnee Wilson.
Her son Manwell and his wife Charnee only arrived this morning from London to surprise her just as she came off the stage.
Murray’s thesis was the development of a model of support for divorced professional nurses in the Eastern Cape and South Africa.
She said her study was inspired by what she had seen in wards as a nurse, where nurses who were going through personal struggles or were ill, had to be strong in order to take care of patients.
“Healthcare workers get sick too. They are human. It is more urgent to assist them first back to health so that they can give their full attention to their patients. This has been a wonderful journey of learning some of the things I wish I had known while in the wards as a young nurse,” she said.
With the university’s May graduation still in full swing, the institution will confer 88 PhDs this season. Murray is the oldest recipient in the group, which includes only 15 African women, five of who are South African.
University stakeholder manager Lizo Phiti said the university was overjoyed by the Murray’s achievements, saying she was an inspiration to the students who were there to witness her capping, as well as all the university’s staff.
“This you do not see happening every day but it is an amazing thing to witness and the university is honoured to have been the one to have walked this journey with Dr Murray,” said Phiti.