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Male nurse of 50 years is one of Singapore’s longest-serving nurses
 HE HAS been a nurse for almost 50 years and was there at the front line when the country fought some of the most life-threatening diseases such as Sars, H1N1 and, not so recently, tuberculosis.
Yet, for Mr Chio Cheng Kay, 69, nursing was never on his radar when he finished his O levels at Monk’s Hill Secondary School in 1961.
Then 19 and the oldest of nine children, he decided to join the workforce to help support his family.
Mr Chio wanted a job as a clerk, but there were no openings then. So he responded to an advertisement for nurses by the Ministry of Health, even though he knew nothing about nursing.
What little information he had came from a neighbour, who had recently quit his post as a nurse at Singapore General Hospital. “He told me he liked the job but he had to soil his hands and handle patients’ excretion, as well as bathe them – and he is quite obsessive, always washing his hands, so he resigned,” Mr Chio said, chuckling.
Now, Mr Chio is one of the longest-serving nurses around.
He officially retired at the age of 62, but has renewed his contract with Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) every year since, working as a nurse manager at its Communicable Disease Centre (CDC).
“I like to be connected to the patient, and to serve. Nursing is about people. You see patients come in sick and in discomfort, and later when you see them leave with joy, you will feel you have done something for them,” he said.
He has spent a quarter of his career at the CDC and is no stranger to death and disease. After all, he joined TTSH at a time when almost all the wards were dedicated to treating highly infectious, and complicated, tuberculosis cases.
Since then, Mr Chio has cared for patients through the H1N1 outbreak, those with dengue, chikungunya, the Nipah virus and even HIV.
Sars was the one that hit him the hardest, he said. “It was an unknown disease with so many deaths, and the effects were so severe because there was no known treatment.”
Still fit, Mr Chio said he will continue to care for patients as long as he is able and needed. “There’s never been a day I’ve stopped work since I ‘retired’. Nursing keeps my body, mind and soul going.”
Having long-serving nurses such as Mr Chio is very important in the health-care industry, said TTSH’s director of nursing Kwek Puay Ee.
“They are the walking dictionaries of the hospital; their seniority and experience gives crucial reassurance and comfort to patients. That is key, especially for long stayers and those with chronic diseases. It helps them to see a familiar face.”
Mr Chio said he did not find it difficult being so close to diseases. What he found more difficult to grapple with was the stigma that came with being a male nurse.
“Back then, the perception of a nurse was female, so a nurse being male was inconceivable at the time. We’d be a bit shy to put on our uniforms or to tell people; the general public viewed male nurses as quite sissy,” he said.
However, Mr Chio said his father never chided him about his career choice, nor did his wife, a nurse he met working at TTSH. The couple have three grown-up daughters.
In fact, the only time his daughters asked him to reconsider was during the Sars crisis – when a number of front-line medical staff contracted the virus – because they feared for his health.
Mr Chio said that when he started, there were only 10 males out of about 200 nurses. Now, there are 2,034 male nurses here – about 7 per cent of the nation’s 26,792 nurses.
Mr Chio is happy that perceptions of male nurses have changed.
“Now no one bats an eyelid when we walk into the room.”
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