18/06/2021
One of our very own Kuils River residents
“I’ve been a nurse at Groote Schuur for almost 42 years. I started on 1 June 1980 as a student nurse, so I got to work throughout the hospital. After training I was one of the first students selected for the integrated midwifery course, and I came back from that as a Registered Nurse. In 1988 I started working in the haematology unit and then the haematology clinic, and that’s where I stayed for 30 years until the management post for night duty came up.
On night duty there are two of us managers, so we divide the hospital. I cover the surgical pavilion, trauma and emergency unit, theatre and maternity. So I get to know all the nurses in different pavilions. It’s a very different experience working nights, but I enjoy it. It’s like coming back to my roots as a student where I got to work in all areas of the hospital.
When you work in haematology you work with leukaemia patients a lot. There was an 18 year old girl diagnosed with acute leukaemia. Her brother donated bone marrow and she received a transplant. She was a factory worker and during her chemo she was very sick. They said she would never be able to have children. But she got better and once she was well she went and studied to be a nurse at UWC. Now she’s a registered nurse, and she’s married with two children.
Those are the kind of stories that kept me going in haematology. You’re like a family there. Yes there sad cases, but there are a lot of good stories to tell. More positive than negative.
There are also lots of stories from night duty. One night there was a 23 year old mother that gave birth with a lot of complications. They had to do an emergency hysterectomy and the baby wasn’t doing well, the doctors thought he wouldn’t make it. I went down to the baby in the nursery and I said, “hello baby, you must make it because you will be your mother’s only baby”. And that baby looked up at me with big dark eyes and followed my voice. Later I heard he was doing well. That for me is the reward of nursing.
I’m turning 60 so next year I will be retiring. I’m very creative so when I retire I’m looking forward to doing things like flower arranging, and crafts that I never had time for. But I also want to write a book about all the stories from the hospital. When I think of all the good things that I’ve experienced, I don’t have any regrets about becoming a nurse.” – Sister Rachel Charles, Assistant Manager Nursing, Night Duty
Credit:
Heroes of Groote Schuur
