I think my passion for nursing sparked from there. An imperfect, bright set of teeth was revealed, impersonating a smile that was directed to me as an expression of appreciation after helping her, an old lady getting back on her feet after tripping up on the road. Consequently after the incident, I wanted to experience the gratifying feeling from helping the old lady once again. Hence, it fueled my drive to participate in volunteering activities, thus it has kickstarted my intentions to become a reliable source of help to the community and society. The main reason I joined nursing though, was due to my grandparent’s passing. The harsh reality that exhibits the inevitable death made quite an emotional impact on me. Needless to say, that incident was the key in validating and confirming my career choice further as a nurse. My new goal now was to use my heart to heal and my actions to cure in terms of reducing the painful experiences for the patients. Gaining the support from my family and friends, I decided to embark on this path to be a nurse and chose International Medical University (IMU) as my alma mater. However, the journey to become a nurse proved to be no easy task, as I expected. The exposure to nursing knowledge in the past 6 months was nothing compared to what I have learnt in the past prior to my degree despite having a science academic background. It was evident that I was shaken out of my complacency by the reality of my dream to become a nurse.
The workload was a bit overwhelming at first, but as I slowly adapted to the programme, I found it more manageable as months went by. Not to mention, the learning process was mostly online-based, I personally found it difficult to separate the working space and resting space in my very own room. It might have initiated many instances of procrastination that was inhibiting me from achieving my goals and purposes. It was truly a struggle to break out of my mental slump to do something productive.
Despite having a hard time, I still found the learning progress to be rewarding. When the day for practical lessons approached, it meant that I would physically meet the students in my cohort for the very first time. Due to the pandemic, there were no opportunities to break the ice or interact with one another in lectures and tutorial sessions. Much to my surprise, all eight of us, although with different personalities and preferences, still managed to click together upon the first meeting. As the bond between the batchmates and me strengthens, the more I could relate to their issues and I realised I was not alone in this journey. Upon our physical meeting, I was ecstatic and began to look forward to our time spent together. Now that I have survived Semester 1, I am looking forward to the following seven semesters, as it will help define my professionalism in the future nursing career. To be able to relieve people of their worries and suffering has always been a goal of mine, the thought of that will remind me to stand back up during my dark moments, no matter how hard it may be.
| Lastly, there is a saying that I would like to share: |
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| “Even if you work hard, you might succeed or fail. However, opportunities will always come to people who work hard.” |
Although I am currently not satisfied with my performance and academic results, I will always remain optimistic and motivated when new information needs to be learned, when procedures need to be perfected, and when ideas need to be advocated. So far, to me, this has all been a compilation of lucky incidents and experiences, whatever it may seem or whatever the outcomes turn out to be. Despite that, I will credit myself for my past decisions and actions have brought me here to this day.
Written by Mah Yi Ling, Cohort NU1/20 Semester 2 Nursing Student
Edited by Chow Suh Hing & Dr Lim Swee Geok
