Ms Angie Chua, 52, has more than 25 years of experience in the healthcare industry. As a Senior Nurse Manager at NKF, she shares good relations with her patients and her dedication has touched the lives of many under her care – one of them being 42-year-old Ms Catherine Lau.
Catherine was diagnosed with Lupus at the age of 17 and started dialysis four years ago at NKF due to Lupus induced kidney failure. That was when she met Angie.
A challenge
Upon starting dialysis, Angie recalled, Catherine was generally difficult to get along and refused to listen to reason. Angie remarked, “At one time, she deemed her dialysis chair to be too dirty and insisted to have the chair cleaned before she would even sit on it for dialysis. Her attitude and behaviour brought various challenges for the team.”
The pivotal moment came when Catherine was hospitalised one day and Angie, who was off-shift, decided to pay Catherine a visit but not before giving her a call to ask what she would like to eat. “I have been frequently hospitalised since my diagnosis of Lupus, but that was the first time a nurse would go to such lengths for me,” Catherine said.
When I was doing dialysis and was trembling with cold, she would give me a massage and
offer words of encouragement.
I was eventually moved.
Winning her over
Appreciative of Angie’s display of care and concern, Catherine started her silent observation of the nurse manager. Over time, she discovered that Angie’s kindness towards patients is genuine. Catherine, who is 10 years younger than Angie, affectionately calls her “big sis”. Looking at the scene, one would be hard pressed to imagine the Catherine now as a “difficult patient” once.
As Catherine is afraid of the pain, she does not want the needle to be inserted into different locations on her arm each time she does her dialysis. Aware of her dilemma, Angie specially planned for another injection method for her, in which the needle is injected at precisely the same location each time, which will reduce the amount of pain caused.
