Retired nurses honoured
The Golden Girls Retired Nurses (GGRN) took time out of their day on Wednesday to celebrate life and socialise at Soweto Jive.
With the theme 'I will age as a nurse', the purpose of the day was for the nurses to unite these former colleagues, all of whom worked at various health facilities under the City of uMhlathuze.
Explaining the organisation's mandate, GGRN president - a former matron at Ngwelezana Hospital - Jeanette Vilakazi said nursing is a highly professional field with good standards and ethics.
‘However, once you retire from the profession you are forgotten; you become so lonely in such a way that even your former colleagues forget about you,' said Vilakazi.
'After realising that, I decided to initiate this structure for retired nurses to join voluntarily.'
She said, to date they have enrolled over 60 members and their wish is to one day own a centre where they could pass on their immense experience to current nurses at public and private facilities.
‘We don’t want to leave with such wisdom without passing it on.
‘I want to warn all the professional nurses that nursing is not a job, it is a calling,’ she said.
Vilakazi said the profession requires nurses who are patient and respectful towards their patients and colleagues.
'Patients must be warmly welcomed to health facilities, and they must depart in warm hands,' said Vilakazi.
GGRN chairperson Ziphi Dladla said it is pivotal for them to take care of each other as retired nurses and as a structure.
The organisation holds monthly meetings so they can be updated about each other.
‘We visit each other according to our zones, and we bath and clean those who are no longer able to take care of themselves,’ said Dladla.