Staff at the Rahima Moosa Mother and Children’s Hospital in Coronationville west of Johannesburg have downed tools for the day to raise awareness on the effects of Gender-Based Violence.
As receivers of victims of the violence, they want to highlight the impact it has on them, especially the nursing staff.
Over 300 staff including nurses and nursing students – dressed in black – marched through the streets of Coronationville against the scourge of Gender-Based Violence facing the country.
The marchers say it is important that nurses, who experience the trauma of victims of Gender-Based Violence take a stand and are also helped to cope.
Nurses are among the health care workers who are the first to come into contact with victims of violence.
Vice-principal at the Rahima Moosa Nursing College Jasmin Gassiep says,“The emotional impact that is having on our nurses without real support, they take these emotions home with them, there’s no real opportunity for our nurses to debrief, they sit with this baggage year in and year out.”
