When the severe acute respiratory syndrome broke out in 2003, Hu Xiaomei was touched when she saw on television the hard work of healthcare staff.
Inspired by their acts, Xiaomei, who was a 19-year-old student in China at the time, enrolled in a nursing course in Kunming Medical University in Yunnan that same year.
After a month in the course, she moved to Singapore on a nursing scholarship, pursuing a diploma in nursing at Nanyang Polytechnic.
In 2007, she was posted to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) to be a staff nurse.
“Initially, I didn’t know much about mental health and I felt like I should have gone to the general hospital, perhaps the emergency department, and do more to save lives,” she said.
But after working for a few years in the hospital, she soon realised how meaningful her job was, and began to build long-term and deep relationships with her patients.
Xiaomei’s dedication to her profession earned her the prestigious Nightingale Award, presented by Senior Minister of State for Health and Law Edwin Tong, who was Guest of Honour at the IMH Nurses’ Day celebration and awards ceremony yesterday (2 August.
Xiaomei, 34, is now a nurse clinician in the programme’s ward, where she cares for patients and provides guidance and supervision to the nurses.
To provide vocational training for patients, she taught them how to make hair clips and handicrafts in 2016.
She also taught patients money management and basic customer service skills so they could sell their crafts within the hospital and keep the takings as pocket money.
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Source: The Straits Times, 3 August 2019