Kedibone Mdolo obtained her nursing and midwifery diplomas at Bonalesedi Nursing College in Johannesburg in 1995 and her diploma in Clinical Nursing Science, Health Assessment, Treatment and Care from Chris Hani Baragwanath Nursing College in 2001. She works for the Democratic Nurses Organisation of South Africa (DENOSA) as a Projects coordinator where she participates in policy forums in order to positively influence the nursing profession and effectively deal with members’ professional queries. She has also been working with the International Council of Nurses (ICN) on their MDR-TB project since 2009. Before joining DENOSA, she worked in Emergency Room Care and Community Health Care centres as a Psychiatric nurse, School Health nurse and Primary Health Care nurse.
Kedibone contracted occupational tuberculosis in 2008, complied successfully with treatment and was cured. The experience made her aware of how TB can affect all aspects of a person’s life. It inspired her to become committed to sharing information with health care workers about their risk of contracting drug sensitive and drug resistant tuberculosis and to educate them on how to effectively manage and support patients with these diseases. She experienced terrible stigmatization and isolation from her peers and she did not want that to happen to others. By becoming a passionate TB advocate she aims to reach most of those who still think and believe that they are immune to TB and to encourage them to support those that contract TB, because it can happen to anyone. Kedibone is also involved in educating communities, highlighting that TB is curable, that ‘we can beat TB together’!
