01 Aug 2010
Last year, a man who had two sons was told that his disease recurred less than three months after treatment. He turned from being a friendly patient to an angry person and often shouted at us during his subsequent visits to the centre.
For my colleagues and I, it was very demoralising. About three weeks before he passed away, I finally sat by his bedside while he was receiving treatment. He asked: ‘What do you want?’ I said: ‘I recognise that you are going through a lot of frustration and I am here to listen.’ At that moment, he broke down and cried.
He just needed an avenue to vent his feelings and to come to terms with his illness. As a nurse, empathising with his anger and anguish, I felt I needed to first assist a patient in reconciling with himself before becoming his care provider.
— Nurse clinician Tan Chor Kien (above), 45, who received the PS21 Distinguished Star Service Award in May this year. She has been in nursing since 1987 and is now based at the Singapore General Hospital’s Haematology Centre, which specialises in blood diseases and cancers.
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