Stella Mokitimi receives a Nursing Excellence Award
Stella Mokitimi, a mother of two beautiful girls, is among the first nurses at Red Cross to pursue doctoral studies and has been the first to be granted sabbatical; which she hopes would pave the way for other nurses to pursue further studies. She has over 17 years of experience as an Advanced Psychiatric Nurse Specialist. Stella has worked for 6 years in Adult Psychiatry and an additional 11 years in Child Psychiatry. Stella, who is also a third year doctoral candidate in Psychiatry at the University of Cape Town, aims to conduct a policy, situational and stakeholder analysis of Child and Adolescent Mental Health (CAMH) services, and to explore the perspectives of CAMH users and providers regarding needs, barriers and facilitators for CAMH services. In addition, her doctoral study aims to develop a service delivery model for CAMH services to inform policy implementation in South Africa and other low resourced environments.
On 7 November 2017, Stella Mokitimi was awarded the Nursing Excellence Award at Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital along with 15 other nurses who have contributed to the advancement of nursing and nursing excellence. The award recognises the excellent service rendered by nursing staff, as selected by their colleague within their respective areas of excellence. Reflecting upon receiving the Nursing Excellence Award, Stella said “Receiving this award is such an honour for me and I feel humbled. It is such motivation to be acknowledged for my hard work, especially when I do it with dedication and humility. I thank God for this humbling recognition that motivates me to continue to serve those in need with the best of my abilities.” We at the Centre for Autism Research in Africa (CARA) and the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (DCAP) are extremely proud of Stella and her wonderful achievements.