Doctors must work closely with others
- By Wits University
Nursing icon, Professor Busisiwe Bhengu, addressed Health Sciences graduands during a ceremony in the Wits Great Hall at the July Graduations Cluster on Wednesday, 2 July 2014.
Degrees were conferred on graduands in the Faculty of Health Sciences and ranged from PhD to medicine, nursing and dentistry degrees.
Bhengu, a critical care nurse and current chairperson of the 15th South African Nursing Council, pressed upon the graduands the importance of interdisciplinary cooperation in the health care sector, urging new doctors to work closely with all health care professionals.
“Cooperation creates a more comprehensive appreciation of the challenges and problems we are facing in the health sector and mobilises a power base to enact change to provide the best care to our patients,” she said. to her full address.
She is an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) where she has held several positions, including that of Head of the School of Nursing between 2008 and 2011. Bhengu led curriculum development in the nurse specialist field and has also developed and implemented critical care nursing curricula in the United Arab Emirates, Kenya, Tanzania, and various other African countries. She has also taught Critical Care Nursing in and outside South Africa at diploma, and Bachelors and Masters degree level.
She served as director of the World Health Organisation’s Collaboration Centre in the UKZN School of Nursing between 2008 and 2011, and has represented the Afro-Region at the Executive Committee of the Global Network for two years.
Bhengu holds numerous teaching awards from UKZN and nursing accolades including being the best practical nurse in the Natalspruit Hospital in 1975. Bhengu obtained her PhD in Nursing from the University of Natal in 2003.