|
Award-winning nurse (below) ‘worried’ her dad after suddenly leaving office job
 SHE graduated among the top 10 per cent of her nursing class in Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP) last month.
She was also one of four recipients of the Capita-Land ealthcare Frontliners Award, an annual award which recognises nursing raduates who have performed exceptionally well in the course of their nursing education.
But when Miss Nursarini Kamsani first told her father that she wanted to be a nurse back in 2003, he was adamantly against it.
Mr Kamsani Mahwan, 59, a taxi driver, was afraid that his petite daughter, who is only 1.46m tall, would not be up to the challenge.
“She is so small-sized,” said the taxi driver. “I felt she could not handle patients double her size.”
He was especially worried about her safety because of the Sars outbreak in 2003 .
He said he remembered asking her if she could handle the demands of the job.
Dad ‘freaked out’
Miss Nursarini had graduated from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) Bishan in 2002 with a certificate in office skills, and her sudden change of mind about her career surprised her father.
“He freaked out,” recalled Miss Nursarini, 27.
“He thought I was being so indecisive about my job. He kept asking me: ‘Are you sure? Why do you want to do this?’ ”
Despite his objections, Miss Nursarini followed her heart and returned to ITE to study nursing in 2003.
She earned her certificate two years later and started working at the National Heart Centre Singapore (NHCS) as an enrolled nurse for three years.
Impressed with her performance, NHCS then decided to sponsor her studies at NYP in 2008.
Last month, Miss Nursarini graduated from NYP with a diploma with merit in nursing.
She said that she was “very happy and grateful” and felt that her previous experience at NHCS helped her to excel.
“My three years there really exposed me to the real hospital environment,” she said. “It helped me to do better in my practical tests and clinical attachments.”
She is now back at NHCS working as a staff nurse, which is higher-ranking than an enrolled nurse.
When asked why she went against her father’s wishes to take up nursing, Miss Nursarini explained that she had tried working in an office for a few months, but found it “unsatisfying” because it was desk-bound.
“I realised that I’m more of a people person,” she said. “I like to communicate and interact with others and nursing helps me to do just that.”
Although it bothered her initially that she would be two years behind her peers by going through ITE again, Miss Nursarini said that the satisfaction she derives from her job now more than makes up for it.
Miss Nursarini was also selected for an overseas attachment at the Royal Prince Albert Hospital in Sydney last year for a month.
At the award ceremony last month, her parents were “smiling from ear to ear”, said Miss Nursarini, who lives with her younger brother, 17, and parents in a four-room flat in Yishun. Her married older brother does not live with the family.
Mr Nursarini’s father has now changed his mind about her job.
“I find her job very meaningful,” he said.
Her supervisor at work, Sister Rosalind Sim, 60, described Miss Nursarini as “very hardworking” and “patient-oriented”, adding that she frequently receives good feedback about Miss Nursarini from patients.
|