Red Cross nurse, Gift of the Givers founder honoured
PAEDIATRIC nursing specialist Sister Jane Booth has been crowned Nurse of the Year 2016 at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital’s 8th annual Nursing Excellence Awards in Rondebosch.
Booth received the award for her outstanding service to the hospital, particularly for her contribution to the hospital’s groundbreaking Breatheasy Programme she helped found in 1989.
The programme assists parents and caregivers to look after their technologydependent children at home.
Such patients require technology to prevent death or further disability and a technically skilled carer to look after them, said the hospital’s head of department of nursing, Mitzi Franken.
The programme, which is co-ordinated by Booth, trains parents to take over the care of their technology-dependent children from the hospital’s medical team, allowing the children to be treated at home.
It improves the child’s quality of life, their developmental needs and prevents the psycho-social complications of long-term hospitalisation, Franken said.
Booth’s tireless work in the programme has influenced the practice in South Africa and globally by sharing this model of care.
The programme was one of only two health innovations from South Africa featured as part of a BBC series showcasing health innovations across Africa in April 2015, Franken said.
The Nurse of the Year award is bestowed on exceptional individuals who live up to the nurses’ pledge and their profession’s values of having a caring, empathetic and positive attitude; advocating for patients and their families; demonstrating leadership by motivating others and earning the respect of peers; and behaving in a professional manner.
The award is also betowed for continually pursuing excellence in nursing; delivering positive outcomes in the face of adversity; performing above expectations; playing an important role as part of the multidisciplinary healthcare team; and supporting and participating in reaching the objectives of the nursing department and the hospital, said Franken.
She said nursing formed the cornerstone of any healthcare system and it was important to encourage the nursing responsibilities in the profession by highlighting the important work they do.
“These awards reward and enhance nursing excellence and create an opportunity for further education and training,” she said.
In August, Booth won the Critical Care Society of Southern Africa’s President’s Nursing Award, the society’s highest accolade.
Booth started in nursing in 1972 at New Somerset Hospital and did midwifery at Frere Hospital in East London.
She has since been a professional nurse at the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital for the past 37 years, completing courses in paediatric nursing and advanced paediatric nursing.
This year’s recent awards ceremony boasted a strong line-up of 16 of the best candidates or nominees chosen by their nursing colleagues within their respective areas of expertise.