Associate Professor Sinegugu Duma of the Division of Nursing and Midwifery at UCT, and founding director of the university's Sexual Assault Response Team, was inducted into the Hall of Fame for Research Excellence in Nursing by the Forum of University Nursing Deans in South Africa (FUNDISA) on 22 July 2016.
“Personally, it means my colleagues within the nursing fraternity, both nationally and continentally, recognise how I have translated the findings of my research on sexual violence into nursing practice and the development of nursing scholarship throughout the continent,” said Duma.
Duma used her research findings to develop sexual assault forensic nursing in the Western Cape and to have forensic nursing recognised nationally.
“I have PhD and MSc nursing students and graduates conducting research in response to violence against women in different settings in their respective countries,” she added.
Duma's work has led to the development of most nurse-led sexual-assault nursing services in the Western Cape. It also led to the development of clinical competencies for a clinical forensic nursing qualification towards the recognition of forensic nursing as an additional nursing qualification by the South African Nursing Council.
“I am excited and happy with the recognition the award entails as it means someone somewhere notices what I do with my research findings in changing the nursing practice, as well as in the development of nursing researchers and nursing practice.”
Story Yusuf Omar. Photo Michael Hammond.
Sinegugu Duma is a member of the Next Generation Professoriate.
Read related stories:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Please view the republishing articles page for more information.
The Next Generation Professoriate (NGP) is a mid-career academic staff development and support programme. Funded by the vice-chancellor’s Strategic Funds, the NGP addresses demographic inequalities in the academic hierarchy. The goal is to help members become associate and full professors.
The NGP was officially launched in September 2015. By the end of 2018, four of its members had been promoted to full professor and a further 14 had reached the rank of associate professor.
The programme is led by Dr Robert Morrell, who has over 35 years of academic experience in South African universities. He has a B1-rating from the the National Research Foundation (NRF) and is an elected member of the Academy of Sciences in South Africa.