Cape Town - After 47 years of dedicated service to Groote Schuur Hospital and its patrons, Rasheeda Ismail clocked in for the last time on Tuesday.
Senior Admin Officer in Radiology, from Heideveld, Ismail, was just 17 years old when she started at Groote Schuur Hospital on February 10, 1975.
She had celebrated her 21st birthday working night shift at the hospital and more recently her 65th on Saturday, prior to her retirement.
“At the time I started, I was 17 years old. I lost my mother and we were a lot of children and my father was unemployed and we were struggling so I just thought that I had to leave school and this is where I started my career at Groote Schuur and never changed positions.”
Ismail applied for a position as a technical assistant in the sterilising department.
“I built up experience at the hospital. I started there when I was very young. It was just phenomenal. I had a passion for hospitals and for the institute, for working with patients to interact with all the different staff, that’s why it was never a problem for me to go to work everyday,” said Ismail.
“The time when I started it was very strict. We were treated as nurses although we worked in the sterilising department, but as time went on things changed.
“I loved the way it was in those years when they called it Florence Nightingale. I admired the nurses in their uniforms, dresses with the capes, the caps on their heads, pantyhose and lace-up shoes.”
A few years later, Ismail applied for a position in the radiology department.
“To work at a hospital was always my wish and I always said I would like to work at a hospital, no matter what, even if I had to start as a cleaner. And I really enjoyed my life. It was through thick and thin, ups and downs. I started as a teenager and I became a senior citizen up until the last day until I left the institute.”
Ismail said she has no major plans for retirement and is in no rush to make any, just yet.
“It was a very sad day, to part with the department and the institute that I’ve spent 47 years at. It was very heartsore and I was very emotional. Just to think that I’m leaving part of my family behind which I worked with all these years,” she said.
Groote Schuur Hospital principal communications officer Alaric Jacobs said: “The hospital thanks Rasheeda for her long service to the hospital. Her dedication and loyalty to the hospital and patients is a shining example to all other staff. We salute her and wish her a happy retirement, she deserves it.”