By Karla Cloete
Edited by Imaan Moosa
Elsie van Aswegen is an enrolled nurse, one of the courageous health care workers who served South Africans during the pandemic.
Elsie Catrina van Aswegen is a 53-year-old enrolled nurse who was born in Germiston, South Africa. She grew up in Klopperpark and Springs and now lives in Roodepoort.
Enrolled nurses are responsible for patient care and are usually supervised by a registered nurse. They assess patients’ needs and take care of them. Enrolled nurses can also develop and implement care programs that can better the delivery of patient care. They are registered with the South African Nursing Council.
Enrolled nurses take patients' vitals, take detailed patient notes and report on their condition to doctors. They care for patients before and after surgery as well as perform wound care and personal hygiene for those in their care.
Part of van Aswegen’s job is not only the physical condition of their wards but supporting the emotional needs of the patient as well as their family members.
The pandemic was the most challenging obstacle she has ever faced in her line of work. The workloads and hours were “extreme to say the least”.
“It was most definitely the worst part of my working career,” van Aswegen told To EmpowHER.
Van Aswegen advises young women considering a career in healthcare to thoroughly do their own research. It is not for everyone. She advised her own children against it.
She sums up the best and worst parts of her job: the joys of watching her patients get better and the agony of watching them die.
In all this, she says she has learnt one thing: “That sickness is indiscriminate.”
She was unable to finish high school as she left grade 10 in 1984. She went into nursing in 1985 and finished her training in 1987. Courageously she finished her matric in 2005. In 2009, she finished a diploma in entrepreneurship at the University of South Africa (Unisa) and a psychology degree in health services and social sciences in 2015.
She did not like nursing at first: “I was thrown out of my home by my father and had nowhere to go. Nursing back in the day was a job with a place to stay. I hated it at first but learned to love it and don't regret doing it at all.”
When she is not at work she loves to knit, crochet and bake.
She has 3 children and has recently been blessed with a granddaughter. She says her youngest daughter, at 18, is an old soul who loves music. Her son is an avid gamer who is currently studying away from home at university. Her oldest daughter is a kind-hearted mother of one. Van Aswegen adores her son-in-law just as much as if he were her own.
“I would easily give my life for each of these five people,” she says.
Working in this field has given her a new perspective and appreciation for her family: “Life is precious and can be gone in a heartbeat.”