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Meet South Africa’s First Black Master’s Graduate In EMC

Meet South Africa’s First Black Master’s Graduate In EMC

The Emergency Medical Care (EMC) at the Durban University of Technology (DUT) has made significant strides regarding research in the department and the EMC profession as a whole.

The Durban University of Technology (DUT) has just produced the country’s first Black Master’s graduate in South Africa, Mr Tshikani Lewis Khoza.

On being the first Master’s graduate, Khoza said he was immensely overjoyed. “I am very ecstatic and want to learn as much as possible and be able to plough back my academic and practical experience into my community. I want to help those in disadvantaged communities and make them aware of such a profession and the good it can do,” he said.

His thesis explored lived experiences of Gauteng based military pre-hospital emergency care providers during external deployment. The aim of his study was to explore and describe the lived experiences of military based emergency care providers during external combat deployment.

He chose such a topic because the South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) provides multi-disciplinary health care, including emergency medical care (EMC), to the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). “Post 1994, the SAMHS pre-hospital emergency care providers (PECPs) have been deployed to various external operations to support the SANDF in their combat operations. The challenges experienced during deployment have in the past been reported using formal military reports however there was a noted inadequacy in this processes ability to remedy or adequately address the in-depth experiences of individual PECPs during service delivery. A study of this nature is likely to contribute and understanding of these experiences and highlight the need for a more concerted effort in addressing them,” he said.

Dr Kevin Govender – a research coordinator at the EMC department, said DUT has produced the country’s first Black Master’s graduate ever, a feat on its own. He added that the achievement extended further than just a personal one for Mr Khoza. “This is an achievement for the department as well as the EMC profession as a whole. Mr Khoza not only represents a beacon for other young black paramedics who would want to study further and grow within the EMS profession but now yields the responsibility to challenge the status quo and spearhead projects that look specifically at decolonisation and transformation in an attempt to create a fair and just EMS that is contextually and clinically appropriate for South Africa,” he said.

Currently, Khoza works in Dubai as an advanced paramedic in the Abu Dhabi Police. He has indicated that he wants to continue his academic studies into PhD level at DUT.

Pictured: Tshikani Lewis Khoza

Waheeda Peters

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