Daveyton Clinic nurse hopes to help others

Helping those in need is a priority for the family of Kerryn Nevay, who became a nurse because of her natural love for people.

“My family has a history of nurses,” said the Morehill resident.

“I too want to offer the level of care that I would want back if I was sick.

“I enjoy what I do; the happiness it brings outweighs the stress or problems.”

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The 22-year-old is a nurse in the Daveyton Main Clinic and has been placed in family planning for three months as she is on a rotational basis with her colleagues.

“One day I saw 111 patients, but I enjoy helping.”

“I graduated from Witwatersrand University in 2019 with a BA in nursing sciences.”

During her time of study, Kerryn received numerous accolades for her work, including:

• Basil Bennett Award

• Raymond and Marjorie Dart Medals

• Dean’s Merit List of Bachelor Nursing

• Jack Gear Memorial Award for Nursing

As much as she enjoyed both theory and practical, her practicals were not all a bed of roses as every scholar would expect under the right guidance.

“During my first year, a man was brought into the hospital that I was working in and he had respiratory problems.

“This ward is not designed for people who are in a critical state, but the man was brought in a critical state and it was my colleague and my responsibility to take care of him.

“Both my colleague and I were first-year learners and we tried to help the man as best as we could, but he died a few hours later.

“It was traumatising for us and then the nurses on duty with us told us to perform the ‘last offices’ which is the caring of the person’s body after they die.”

Kerryn said this was one of the most traumatising experiences for any first-year scholar.

“I also helped at a crisis centre and dealt with many sensitive cases which were difficult because I was not used to dealing with such sensitivity every day.”

However, the youngster did not give up on her dreams to help others.

“During my practicals, I had to deliver babies on my own and I successfully delivered 23 babies who were in high-risk pregnancies.”

One of her favourite memories was her delivery of a baby whose father had just died.

“We needed to ensure that the delivery was a smooth process because the mother had already lost her husband and so delivering a healthy baby was important to us, which we successfully did.”

The Daveyton nurse would like to ultimately become a midwife in an obstetric unit to be a form of support to expectant mothers.