100 nurses receive awards for going beyond the call of duty

SINGAPORE — Having delivered babies at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) for 26 years, senior nurse clinician Maria Jumhasan felt she could do more to help expectant mothers.

Together with a small of group nurses, she spearheaded the setting up of a new clinic in 2010, where mothers with low-risk pregnancies can consult with nurses specialising in midwifery instead of a doctor.

Ms Maria, together with five other nurses, run the midwife-led clinic on Monday and Friday afternoons, where they manage cases of mothers into their 28th week of pregnancy onwards, and help in the labour and delivery process.

The 51-year-old was among 100 nurses who received the Nurses’ Merit Award on Tuesday (July 19), in recognition of their outstanding performance and dedication to the profession.

Apart from those working in public healthcare institutions, award recipients also included nurses in the intermediate and long-term care sector, and private hospitals. The ceremony, held at Raffles Town Club, was attended by Senior Minister of State for Health Dr Amy Khor.

Ms Maria said the clinic allows nurses to independently provide holistic care, from the antenatal to postnatal periods.

“If their initial check-ups (after 28 weeks) are all good, they (mothers) will be sent to the midwife-led clinic to continue their care. The doctors can concentrate more on complex cases and we free up their time by seeing these low-risk cases,” said Ms Maria, who completed her master’s degree in midwifery under the Alice Lee Foundation Scholarship in 2013.

Besides delivering babies, nurses in the clinic have greater autonomy in educating parents, said Ms Maria.

Some of the topics they cover during their 20-minute sessions together include caring for the mother’s body during the pregnancy, labour pain management, as well as breastfeeding.

Besides her work in the midwife-led clinic, Ms Maria was also recognised for her dedication in setting up a team of nurses in KKH’s delivery suite to help pregnant women who were at risk of developing complications from the H1N1 virus during the 2009 outbreak.

Putting aside her fears and the possibility of getting infected, Ms Maria said she was driven by her sense of responsibility to help these women.

“When we were in the isolation area, there were only a few of us working together with the patients … (and) we ourselves also felt very isolated during that time”, she said, adding that the moral support of her senior management helped her team to pull through.

Another award recipient, principal assistant nurse Foo Soon Buay, 61, was recognised for her dedication to dementia patients under her care in the psychogeriatric ward at Institute of Mental Health (IMH).

Ms Foo said it takes a tremendous amount of patience and round-the-clock care to help patients who have trouble remembering who or where they are.

Likening them to children, Ms Foo said she has learnt to see past the aggressive behaviour that these patients sometimes display to understanding what they need or want at that moment.

“Most of them have no families and you are part of the only team to look after them… It’s (the same feeling as) looking after our parents,” she added.

Correction: In an earlier version of this story, we misstated that the nurses participated in 20 sessions. It should be 20-minute sessions. We apologise for the error.