Mpho Raseroka

Youth in Uniform

Nominee's Province:
Gauteng

Age:
28

Project Name/Description:
POMPA LIFE

More info:
https://www.instagram.com/survivalcpr/

Each time nursing sister Mpho Raseroka, 28, puts on her uniform to go to work she knows that her attire is a symbol of her deep-seated commitment to serve her community through the provision of quality healthcare. Raseroka, who qualified as a nurse in 2015, works at Charlotte Maxeke Hospital in Johannesburg. For her, nursing is a unique profession contributing to every citizen’s well-being through preventing disease, saving lives, and promoting healthy lifestyles. At work, she believes in the power of collaboration to get better results. “I strive to provide the best healthcare to all my patients and to train (and also learn from) my colleagues, both junior and senior. I believe we can learn from each other and we should all aim to reach the best possible outcome in all situations and put egos aside,” says Raseroka. Passionate about helping to improve the overall healthcare system in her home province, Raseroka is part of the Gauteng Department of Health Nursing task team, whose aim is to improve policy development, organisational development, strategic management, and governance within the nursing profession. She’s an advocate of including young nurses in health policy formulation since they know first-hand the healthcare plight of their communities. “I have stayed in nursing to fully explore the current system and figure out ways to restore dignity to our profession, serve our communities better and improve healthcare overall,” she says. “I like to show up for my colleagues and to advocate for my patients’ health. I also ensure that I’ve updated with the latest [health] protocols and that I am continuously learning.” Raseroka also runs a POMPA LIFE awareness campaign on her social media page, and has recently joined survival.cpr in order to equip community members with basic CPR skills “so they can be able to handle emergency situations that can save lives such when a loved one collapses, chokes, bleed and has an allergic reaction or ingests poison”. Such basic skills, she says, can save lives in cases ambulances take too long to arrive. A humanist at heart, she admits: “I am passionate about the betterment of human lives and I find fulfillment in seeing people healthy, happy, and thriving.”