The team’s poster, titled Global Pandemic: An Occupational Hazard – A Mandela (Rising) Response, covered their journey from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic to implementation of the COVID-19 vaccination at the institution.
The team was led by Sisters Valencia Benjamin (centre), Zilla Shaw (right) and Sharyl Septoo.
“The poster was our opportunity to share the strides we have made in occupational health and in the battle against COVID-19 pandemic and the vaccination, thereby promoting Nelson Mandela University’s efforts to combat the pandemic,” the team said.
They hope to take this poster to The International Conference Occupational Health (ICOH)2022 in Melbourne, Australia.
SASOHN is a professional body for Occupational Health Nurses, providing continuous education through workshops, monthly meetings and annual conferences. This year was its 40th anniversary, with the conference hosted by KwaZulu-Natal region.
The poster competition encourages interprofessional occupational health and/or safety professionals to exhibit significant evidence-based information from the workplace and/or from formal research. This year the theme was COVID-19 and vaccination.
“Pandemics such as COVID-19 brought about many changes and challenges in the workplace. The conference was an opportunity for us to grow with the changes in meeting these challenges,” says the team.
Their attendance and participation at the annual conference enabled them, as Occupational Health Nurses, to keep abreast of legislation, guidelines and the maintaining high standards at the University.
According to the team, winning this competition had been possible due to the work contributed by the Occupational Health Team, LTCollab, Communications and Marketing, Infrastructure and various other internal stakeholders.
They also extended their appreciation to the Deputy Vice-Chancellor People and Operations, Lebogang Hashatse, who heads the Coronavirus Task Team and the university’s management for their support.
