Mitzi Franken of Protea Heights has joined the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital as nursing manager, from Mowbray Maternity Hospital, where she was the assistant neonatology manager for six years.
With 25 years of experience under her belt, Ms Franken started her career at Tygerberg Hospital in 1991, after qualifying as a registered professional nurse at the then Otto du Plessis Nursing College.
After three years at Tygerberg, she worked in midwifery and neonatal nursing care at the Nkhoma Hospital, in Malawi, before moving to Karl Bremer Hospital where she helped to set up a 30-bed kangaroo mother care unit.
She also worked at the Muscat Private Hospital in Oman, helping with the opening of a neonatal intensive care unit there before returning to Tygerberg to work as a mentor trainer in the paediatrics department. Ms Franken is the chairwoman of the South African Kangaroo Mother Care Foundation. She chose a career in nursing after regularly being told the story of her birth: her father had to drive more than 300km to get her mother to the hospital as Ms Franken was four weeks premature, and her mother was advised not to have another child. Ms Franken was born on May 12, so she shares a birthday with Florence Nightingale.
“I am confident that Ms Franken will be an invaluable asset to the hospital and continue to advance the great level of care which it is so well known for,” said Health MEC Dr Nomafrench Mbombo.
Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital CEO Matodzi Mukosi said: “I have no doubt that Ms Franken will lead our nursing department with excellence. We are blessed to have a person of her calibre as part of our management team.”
