Celebrating courage, commitment of nurses
The world celebrated International Nurses’ Day on Wednesday and for local nurse, Onele Mdunduluze, 27, the day is about “serving people with pride and continuing to give quality nursing care”.
Mdunduluze, originally from Cofimvaba and a registered nurse at Life Queenstown Private Hospital’s intensive care unit, says Nurses’ Day is an important date as it is the anniversary of the birth of Florence Nightingale, who is widely considered as the founder of nursing.
“We appreciate all the knowledge she has left behind for us to be able to continue to serve our people with pride and continue to give quality nursing care. We do feel that our endless contributions and efforts are appreciated.”
Born and raised in Port Elizabeth, she started working as a nurse in 2015 at Netcare Nursing College and did her practical hours at Netcare Greenacres Hospital. She joined Life Queenstown Private Hospital in December 2019.
Her decision to choose nursing as a career was due to her desire to help others.
“I chose this career because I have always wanted to help and take care of people in their time of suffering and need.”
Being a nurse during the time of a pandemic asked a lot of frontline workers, she said.
“Our role has become even more vital with the pandemic.
“We have to sacrifice time with our families to take care of our patients and work tirelessly for the sick.
“We have to be the bridge between patients and their loved ones as they can’t visit them and rely on us to keep them updated.”
Working in the midst of Covid-19 had put a lot of strain on health care workers, she said.
“There was a lot of strain on the team, but we learnt to be resilient and support each other in taking care of patients.
“We had a lot of professional growth as we were seeing cases that presented differently every day.”
In a statement, Life Healthcare, one of SA’s leading private hospital groups, said it recognised and celebrated the dedicated and committed healthcare professionals for placing patients at the centre of care amid the challenges and stresses of the pandemic.
The group employs more than 10,000 nurses and said over the past year, its nurses had joined together to lead and support each other as caregivers “with heart and substance and have continued to care for patients compassionately and thoughtfully”.
“Nurses are the backbone of our company. It is our nurses who dispense comfort, compassion and care and all this plays an important role in the recovery of patients. On this International Nurses’ Day, we thank our nurses for dedicating their lives to making life better for others,” said Bruce Janssens, regional manager of Exec Border-Kei.
To commemorate the day, various activities were held at all the Life Healthcare hospitals in the Border Kei region.
Nurses recited the nurse’s pledge of service, individually and collectively recommitting themselves to give only the best care to their patients and their families.
One of the ways Life Healthcare annually celebrates its nurses is through the Great 100 Nurses initiative.
The initiative sees nurses nominating their peers and awarding those nurses who epitomise efficiency, quality and compassion in their daily work – which contributes to their patients’ hospital experience.
In the coming weeks, this year’s winners will be announced. Meanwhile, Mdunduluze’s message to young people interested in nursing as a career is to remember that a nurse is someone strong enough to tolerate anything and soft enough to understand everyone. “And never let it be said that to dream is a waste of time dreams are our realities.
“If we put our minds to something, there’s nothing we cannot achieve in this world.”