Meet our team
We are a team of dedicated researchers exploring the concept ‘presence’ and its application in nursing.
We are all experienced in various fields in nursing, including research, nursing education, nursing management, community nursing, midwifery and psychiatric mental health nursing.
The Team
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Emmerentia du Plessis
Team leader
Emmerentia du Plessis is a faculty member at the NuMIQ research focus area and the School of Nursing Science, North-West University (NWU). She is a psychiatric mental health nurse and interested in presence and relational care. Emmerentia and a team of researchers aim to gain a deeper understanding of presence in different contexts in nursing.
Kathleen Froneman
Co-leader
Kathleen Froneman is a colleague at NuMIQ and the School of Nursing Science (NWU). She completed her PhD, in which she developed a practice model for nurse educators to facilitate presence in large class settings through reflective practices. Prof Anneke van Graan (NWU) was part of this study as co-promoter.
Petro Benadé
PhD Candidate
Petro Benadé, also a faculty member at NuMIQ and the School of Nursing Science, NWU, is a PhD candidate conducting research titled: Exploring good care to older persons through presence practices: design, development and evaluation of an intervention. Emmerentia and Prof Siedine Coetzee (NWU) are guiding Petro in this study.
Rudo Ramalisa
PhD graduate
Rudo Ramalisa, faculty member of the Department of Nursing at the Vaal University of Technology, completed her PhD study in 2023, in which she developed a model to facilitate the cultivation of attentiveness in mental healthcare nurses through mindfulness. Rudo conducted this research within the theoretical framework of Pierre Bourdieu, acknowledging the phenomenon ‘habitus’. Emmerentia and Dr Suegnét Scholtz (NWU) was involved in this study as the supervisory team.
Beauty Mkhaliphi
PhD graduate
Beauty Mkhaliphi works as nurse educator at the Gauteng College of nursing. She completed a doctoral study in nursing, with the topic: Strategies to strengthen the clinical accompaniment of nursing students through caring presence. Prof Miriam Moagi was the co-promoter in this study.
Christelle Oukouomi Noutchie
PhD candidate
Christelle Oukouomi Noutchie, a mental health care specialist working at a psychiatric hospital, is conducting doctoral research to develop guidelines for online training, on caring presence, for nurses working in a psychiatric hospital. Prof Daleen Koen is the co-promoter, and Dr Elly Beurskens from the Presence Foundation in the Netherlands is involved to provide the online training.
Lillian Kalimashe
PhD candidate
Lillian Kalimashe, works as clinical programme coordinator at a psychiatric hospital in the West Rand sub-district and is a PhD candidate. Her topic of interest is strategies for enhancing the practice of nursing presence in primary health care through exploring the role of leadership in primary healthcare. The co-promoter involved is Prof Leepile Sehularo. Dr Jan den Bakker, Presence Foundation, Netherlands, will be involved as consultant.
Precious Chukwuere
Post-doctoral fellow
Dr Precious Chibuike Chukwuere is a post-doctoral fellow in the NuMIQ research focus area. He is developing a research programme focusing on the mental health of adolescents, and he is passionate about integrating caring presence as well as organisational, patient, nurse and system outcomes in his research work. He is working under supervision of Prof Siedine Coetzee and Emmerentia.