“Regret made me a nurse”
My nursing journey did not begin with the cliché of “I love nursing” and “helping people”. It never began with it, but it continued with that. My dream was to become a psychologist as understanding a person’s mental state and their behaviour interest me.
The eventful day came when my late grandmother fainted in front of my mother and I. The only thing we could do was to shout for help and call 995. At that point in time, I wanted to do more for my late grandmother just so she could regain her consciousness.
However, my mind was blank.
“If only I had some medical knowledge, things would have turned out differently. My late grandmother would have been able to witness my wedding day.”
“Regret” was the only word I could describe at that given moment. Since then, I enrolled myself into nursing school to learn more about health, medicine and caring for people. Then, I graduated to become a full-fledged registered nurse.
My career was never smooth-sailing. One memorable incident was when a patient under my care collapsed before I could even hand over to the nurse on the next shift. After the incident, I felt if I had paid close attention to his wellbeing, things might have turned out differently.
Since then, I take care of all my patients with tender loving care and do not see my work as merely carrying out doctor’s orders. Even giving a simple ten minutes of my time to feed them during their mealtimes was worthwhile.
Up till today, a simple “thank you” coming from my patients warms the cockles of my heart. Believe it or not, nursing is more than just wiping after our patients; its definition goes beyond words.
Read the rest of our nurses’ stories here
