23/04/2026
We speak to Sister Tandiswa Ndungane, Assistant Nursing Manager in the Trauma & Emergency Unit, who has been a hero in the Emergency Centre on C floor for many years and retires at the end of April this year.
"Although I’m now a nurse in and out, I ended up being one almost by accident. When I finished matric, I didn’t go straight into studying because I felt like I needed a break, but my mother suggested I go and see if there were any opportunities for work at a local hospital. At first the woman in charge said there wasn’t anything available, but then she called me back for an interview. So that’s how I started.
The fact that I am retiring after 32 years of nursing is bittersweet, but the fact that I'm going back to my family is something I am happy about.
I’m going back to KwaZulu-Natal, where my husband is, and one of the things I’m planning to do is to open a small clinic. You know us nurses - once a nurse always a nurse. We have to do something, we can’t sit still.
I came to Groote Schuur in 2017, and so it’s my 8th year here. I’d been at lots of places before. My first hospital role in the Western Cape was in Worcester, but then I had to move closer to Cape Town because my husband’s work was here and it was a bit too much for him to drive into the city every day.
And fortunately, in terms of me looking for a new role, it just came together and thanks to God this post of Assistant Manager in the ICU was available for me.
I've been in ICU my whole life of nursing. I love the rush and I love having to think on my feet. Things change fast and there are lots of challenges.
You have to have courage to work in this environment, but you must also have patience because we are the entrance of the hospital.
But we also really rely on the team members in the other areas - like medical wards, surgical wards, theatre ICUs - because after a patient is seen by our doctors here then they are sent to one of these areas.
There are obviously lots of challenges that we face. One of the main ones is the budget cuts. Our staff is almost half of what it is supposed to be. We rely on a lot of overtime shifts, and agency workers. It’s a challenge working with agency staff as we don’t know how they were trained and we have to spend a lot of time orientating them. And even though we may have everything organised perfectly, if an agency nurse is unable to come in on a certain day then it leaves a huge hole that we have to try and cover.
In terms of equipment, we manage to work with what we have. We’re so used to the old equipment and making a plan. But we foresee issues in terms of equipment when we move to the new Emergency Centre, because the old equipment just won’t work there.
Having a new Emergency Centre is going to be really great for the hospital. Trauma is scheduled to be moving in on 18 May, but we are still trying to figure things out and prepare for it.
I’m going to miss it here. My staff are like my own kids. Some of them are worried about my departure, but I say, ‘Don’t worry, God will raise another me in another form’.”
