Sister Madenia Hoosain has been a nurse since 1986 and when she retires, she hopes to open a safe house for children. Everything she does is for others.
Cape Town, South Africa – Heroes of Groote Schuur is a Facebook page dedicated to highlighting the amazing people who work at or visit the Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town.
Recently they celebrated the career of Sister Madenia Hoosain. As it is Women’s Month, they have been highlighting some of the inspiring women who work at the hospital. Sister Madenia Hoosain’s story is inspiring because she worked her way up to become a deputy manager nurse and now uses that to unite all the nursing staff at the hospital
Sister Madenia started working at Groote Schuur in 1986 in the paediatric ward. She spent ten years in that ward and saw far too many children arriving due to gang violence. She needed to understand why these children were ending up in her ward so she went into the communities to do more.
“I worked in paeds for almost ten years and then I wanted to understand what’s happening in the community and why our children were landing up in hospital. So I went and joined school health services in Manenberg, and I worked there for 20 years.
I’ve seen everything and I’ve grown. Manenberg made me grow.
One of my worst experiences was when I had to duck to avoid the bullets flying over the playground. The children knew and they were trying to protect me. They screamed ‘Sister duck’.”
She worked her way up to Deputy Manager of Nursing at Groote Schuur and has inspired her staff to do their very best at work. Through team-building and group holidays, she has been able to turn around the department.
“I’m now the deputy manager of nursing. I do recruitment and selection of nurses, resilience training and team building.
While I was working nights we had a lot of challenges and struggled with absenteeism. So we started a team building programme . We go away for team building weekends and even take holidays together. In January we went on a cruise and we intend to go to Bali in September next year. I plan, present, organize and facilitate those trips
In our personal lives and in our working environment we need to be resilient. I always ask the nurses, ‘what is resilience’? And I would get answers like ‘when my husband hit me and I would come on duty the next morning and continue to care for my patients’. So resilience is inherent in our nursing staff. Compassion and care are inherent.”
Aside from empowering her fellow nurses, Sister Madenia spends her spare time helping the community. Her dream is to open a safe house for children when she retires. She may not have won the award for Top Nurse in the Western Cape, but in our eyes, she is one of the very best!
“In my off days and in the afternoons after work I go and wash old people and I do dressings in Manenberg and my current thing is I’m registering for the Child Protection National list so I can open a safe house when I retire for abused babies and children on the West coast. I just did my police clearance last week.
I was a nominee for the Top Nurse in the Western Cape one year. I didn’t win. But maybe one day… when I have my safe house”
Give the Heroes of Groote Schuur a follow, their stories they post will inspire you! You can find them here.
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