Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Time to hang up those scrubs
After 50 years, Elizabeth Fester has seen many changes in surgery
ACCOMPLISHED scrub nurse Elizabeth Fester is celebrating her retirement from the operating theatre after 50 years.
Hundreds of patients’ lives have been touched by her skills and compassion.
In her half-century of service as a nursing sister, Fester has been witness to many changes in medical care and has seen many patients through their surgeries, including former president Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.
Bellville-based Fester said she had been born to care for patients.
“Ever since I was a young girl I wanted to be a nurse and treated everybody who had a cut,” she said. “I always felt a nurse has to be born. You have to have the passion for what you’re doing.”
Even in high school in Lansdowne, her teachers always knew what she wanted to be. She completed schooling at the end of Grade 10 and then worked as a carer for a year before training at Nico Malan Nursing College in Khayelitsha in 1970.
“I loved every bit of it, I even didn’t mind the night duty. I just always wanted to be there.”
Fester began her working career at Groote Schuur, looking after patients in the burns unit, intensive care unit and the oncology wards.
Caring for her son, who has special needs, developed her interpersonal skills, which set Fester apart as an excellent nurse.
“I had to learn to be patient and kind. You grow to have compassion and empathy for others.”
After nearly 15 years of service at Groote Schuur, Fester moved to private practice at Claremont Hospital, where she taught herself to assist in the operating theatre.
“I first started as a floor nurse in theatre, where you assist the scrub nurse. Then I started to teach myself to help the anaesthetist.
“One day there was no scrub nurse and I just got in there and did it.”
Fester ended up specialising in eye surgery.
“It’s more than 25 years now I’ve been scrubbing for eyes. It’s different to other surgeries. It’s intricate, and the instruments are delicate.”
In the years of assisting with eye surgery, the absolute highlight for Fester was two very special patients: Mandela and Tutu.
She also took special pride in caring for vulnerable, elderly patients, who were often alone, confused and frightened.
“They would all say they are so scared and I could reassure them,” she said.
“If you’ve got empathy for people, you know how to treat them.
“I’m from the old school. I loved the patients, loved what I did.”