She didn’t want the job and was happy just turning up to deliver her weekly lectures as a part-time teacher, adamantly turning down the repeated pleas from her bosses to take on what she regarded then was a very onerous and energy-sapping task. But Professor Emily Ang’s resistance caved when it became clear that they were equally resolute in wanting to appoint her as Head, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (NUS Nursing), National University of Singapore Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine. “At least help us hold the fort for a year while we look for someone,” she recalled being told by National University Health System (NUHS) Chief Executive Professor Yeoh Khay Guan in 2014.

“It’s turning out to be nine years and a month!” Prof Ang chuckles. “30 June 2023 will be my last day as Head of NUS Nursing; I was appointed on 1 June 2014. I couldn’t have said it then, but it has been a tremendous honour and privilege to be part of NUS Nursing, working with very committed and brilliant colleagues.” She has the distinction of being the first Singaporean to head NUS Nursing (the previous incumbents were foreigners) as well as the longest serving.

And a non-academic to boot, she adds. A life in academia was never in the career sights of the specialist in oncology nursing, whose abiding interest and passion lay in caring for patients and mentoring and coaching young nurses, guiding them through the various stages of their professional careers. But academic life it would be for the reluctant new head of NUS Nursing. She found herself in a whirlpool of never-ending melange of meetings, lectures, counselling staff and students, tackling research grant matters… “Running a clinical department is more challenging because of its myriad challenges, the unexpected happens every day and one gets a great sense of satisfaction in resolving them. An academic department is more administrative and routine, though coaching of staff; developing them is another joy. I do find satisfaction in coaching my staff and seeing them grow.”

The veteran nurse-clinician, educator and researcher began her career as a registered nurse in the emergency, intensive care and oncology units of the Singapore General Hospital, before moving to the School of Nursing in 1987, and the School of Health Sciences, Nanyang Polytechnic in 1993, to groom future nurses. In 2000, she returned to nursing as Head of Oncology Nursing at the National University Cancer Institute (NCIS), where she established the framework and standards for oncology nursing in Singapore. She was also the inaugural Group Chief Nurse at the NUHS, where she is an advisor to its Centre of Nursing Excellence.

Recognised for her lifelong pursuit of evidence-based nursing practices, she oversaw evidence-based practice when she was Deputy Director of Nursing at the National University Hospital (NUH). Her dogged effort at encouraging nurses to conduct research also paid off when the renowned leader in Evidenced-based Healthcare, the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI), chose to set up Singapore’s first JBI Collaborating Centre for Nursing at NUH, with Prof Ang as the founding Director for 10 years. Today the Centre is known globally for its work in implementation science.

First though, a break in Türkiye in May that she promised her husband, who has long bemoaned her demanding work schedule. “This time, I won’t think about work on holiday.” And oh yes, there is one thing she will absolutely not miss, she adds with another hearty laugh: “I won’t have to do performance appraisals anymore!” These essential tasks, so important for staff’s career progress, were enervating and time consuming. With more than 40 staff to review, she would habitually set aside all of July to meet with each of them. “I would tell Hanom (her assistant) to lock my schedule for the whole month. There would not be time for anything else. But the time spent with each one of them is meaningful because that is when I am able to affirm, encourage and congratulate them on the effort that they have put in.”

The new head of NUS Nursing had her work cut out for her right from the start. “It was very challenging!” she recalls with typical understatement. A whole host of administrative and staff issues were waiting for her to deal with. She chose discretion, moving slowly at first, declining to make any drastic change till she had time to observe and size things up. “The undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum needed to be reviewed and refined, researchers were bogged down by teaching loads that ate into their research time. I had to make sure they had time and encourage them to publish in high impact factor journals.

Prof Emily at an earlier gathering with NCIS nurses and Prof John Wong.

“Our average impact has risen significantly; NUS Nursing is 28th globally in QS 2023 rankings. But we aren’t driven by rankings—our focus is on making sure we train our students well and produce good, translational research outcomes. I tell them to do their best; you can’t ask for more than the best.” When you’re good, people notice. Prof Ang believes NUS Nursing draws in quality applicants for its BSc and MSc degree programmes. “Our students are good, well-behaved and motivated. Feedback from institutions is that they are caring and competent.”

If there is something that still needs tending to at NUS Nursing, it is meeting alumni development needs, adds the accredited member of the International Coaching Federation. “Our alumni have passion for nursing. I would like to see a coaching framework available for alumni. Career, growth, development. I like coaching and working with alumni: it’s not mentoring, it’s helping the coachee to recognise deficiencies, inadequacies, opportunities and helping them to move in that direction.”

NUS Nursing’s first Singaporean leader may be stepping down, but she’s not leaving. The institution clearly has a special place in her heart and that fondness is evident in her benedictory remarks. “Be resilient. There are times when you need to walk out; but you should also think about what it was that brought you here in the first place. Is that motivation still there?”