‘I need to be part of decision-making’: Nurse beats odds to qualify as doctor

Onazo Daniso balanced life as a medical student by day and a part-time nurse by night.

On Wednesday her dedication was vindicated when she crossed the graduation stage at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), earning her Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB) degree cum laude.

UKZN said the cum laude pass reflects an academic average of at least 75% across all her modules, which is a remarkable feat for anyone but even more so for someone who spent years juggling work, study, student leadership, financial hardship and the emotional weight of frontline pandemic duty.

“I have always wanted to be a doctor. I can’t imagine doing anything else. I love my job and think I would have been miserable doing something else,” said the 29-year-old, who is an intern at Prince Mshiyeni Hospital in Durban.

Daniso’s love for medicine began in the Eastern Cape town of Lusikisiki, where she grew up witnessing the health-care struggles of rural communities. The idea of becoming a doctor was further planted in her mind while in grade 11 and living with her uncle in King Williams Town.

“I was attending extra classes. One of the teachers pulled me aside and suggested I consider medicine. At first I doubted myself,” she said.

In 2013 while in matric she applied to study medicine at the University of the Free State but was accepted to study nursing, her second choice.

She began her nursing degree in 2014, but financial struggles threatened to derail her success.

She did not allow her determination to waver. She wrote directly to the university’s vice-chancellor and the gamble paid off: her first-year fees were cleared and a door opened for a private bursar to fund her studies from the second year. The National Student Financial Aid Scheme funded her final two years. By 2018 she had completed her nursing degree and had to undertake one year of paid community service.

Earning money felt good but she couldn’t shake the feeling that she wasn’t where she was meant to be.

“I always told my colleagues I was going back to study medicine. I needed to understand more and to be part of the decision-making,” she said.

Another hurdle remained. Her bursary conditions required her to work for the sponsoring company for three years after her community service. Daniso started saving aggressively,  setting aside more than two-thirds of her salary every month. By year-end she had scraped together the R116,000 needed to repay the bursar and some money needed to register at UKZN.

She began her medical degree at UKZN in 2019. Funding remained uncertain, however, and she later returned to part-time nursing to stay afloat.

Then came Covid-19. When hospitals filled in 2020, Daniso took shifts in high-risk wards, the “red zones”.

“In December I worked at a private hospital. I was the nursing sister, working six night shifts a week with only one day off. So many patients died. I still remember some of their faces. I hated the system and how powerless it made us feel.”

The trauma caught up with her. She took a break from nursing to protect her mental health but felt the pandemic sharpened her determination to pursue medicine.

“It made me more certain that I needed to become a doctor.”

Despite the pressure of study and work, she served on the student representative council in 2021/2022. In her latest year of study, she was the final year class representative and final year committee chairperson.

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