30 Jul 2011
By: NG KAI LING
THE three women who received this year's President's Award for Nurses have something in common - none of them started out wanting to go into the profession.
But they ended up making a career out of nursing, and they have now been honoured with the nation's highest accolade for the profession.
At the Istana yesterday, Singapore General Hospital's senior nurse manager Chong Lai Ling, St Luke's Hospital's director of nursing Susie Goh and Tan Tock Seng Hospital's advance practice nurse (APN) Jamie Lim received their awards from President S R Nathan.
All three had had to take care of ailing relatives when they were younger, and that was when they realised they had the chops to be nurses.
When she was in her teens, Ms Lim wanted to become a doctor. While at secondary school, she helped take care of her cancer-stricken grandmother.
"I realised I had a flair," said the 42-year-old. "Unlike my two sisters, I was not daunted by blood, phlegm or other unpleasant stuff. It was then that I decided to study hard to become a doctor."
But her family moved and she was transferred to a new school, which could not give her a place in the science stream - a basic entry requirement for medical school here. She said: "I was very upset. But even if I couldn't be a doctor, I still wanted to be in health care."
Determined to realise her ambitions, she attended nursing school after graduating from Ngee Ann Polytechnic with a diploma in public health engineering. She said becoming an APN was a dream come true as it allowed her to help doctors craft treatment plans for patients.
For Ms Chong, it was a chance encounter that steered her back to her true calling.
Even though she knew early on that she wanted to be a nurse, she decided to study accounting as the nursing profession was not highly regarded here in the 1980s.
"Everyone wanted an office job in the corporate world, and I thought I wanted that too," said Ms Chong.
She met a student attending the same accountancy course who told her about doing a stint at a nursing school. It then struck her that she would really rather be working at a patient's bedside than at a desk.
"I quit my accounting course after two years. I didn't want to be stuck forever in a job I didn't like," said the 46-year-old.
Yesterday was not the first time that Ms Chong had been recognised for her work. In her 21 years as a nurse, she has received an Excellent Service Star Award, a PS21 Award, a Healthcare Humanity Award and a Singapore Health Service Quality Award.
She also made the news in 2007 when she took in a leukaemia patient from China who was here for a clinical trial, so he could save money on rent.
At yesterday's event, for the first time since 2000, when the award was first presented, a nurse from a community hospital was recognised. Ms Goh, who specialises in wound care, once spent two years treating leg wounds that had ailed a patient for 30 years.
"I hope this award will win more recognition for the work done in community hospitals, which are often seen as a 'step down' from other hospitals," she said.
Asked what set them apart from others, all three nurses used the C-word: Calling.
Ms Chong summed it up best: "Not everyone can be a nurse. You need to have a strong character, but first, you must have a caring heart."
Email: kailing@sph.com.sg
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