Growing the next generation of nurses

Ng Siok Qi, Class of 2011

The Russian doll sitting on the desk of Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH) Nurse Manager Ng Siok Qi may seem out of place, but it holds a special meaning for her.

“Russian dolls are given to newly-promoted nursing supervisors at the hospital to remind us that the hallmark of a successful leader is to develop nurses to be ‘bigger’ than ourselves,” she explains.

One of the youngest nurse managers at KTPH, Ms Ng, 31, catapulted to the rank in just four years after she joined the hospital as a fresh graduate of the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (NUS Nursing).

When her manager left for a new position at Yishun Community Hospital, she was asked if nursing management was a career track she was keen to explore, recounts Ms Ng, who was then a nursing scholar.

“I never imagined that I would be made a manager,” says Ms Ng. She accepted the offer as she believes that human resource management directly impacts the care nurses provide to patients.

“If nurses are not managed well, it will take a toll on their teamwork and morale, and the effects will spiral down to the care they provide,” she explains. She also adds that a well-managed workforce holds a higher retention rate.

At the 33-bedder General Medicine ward, you can find Ms Ng behind the scenes managing its finances and administrative resourcing, as well as on the ground interacting with nurses and patients to ensure that care standards remain high. Stepping in to manage incidents and handling feedback are also some of the other duties she has to juggle daily.

Rising up the ranks, Nurse Manager Ng Siok Qi enjoys the dynamic nature of her job at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital where she now leads a team of nurses.

Accepted by local universities to study Accountancy and Nursing after her GCE A-levels, Ms Ng could have easily become an accountant, but she chose to enter the field of nursing instead.

“They say that if you have a job that you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. Nursing is a job that makes me feel emotionally fulfilled at the end of a day,” she remarks.

Although Ms Ng made the Dean’s List throughout her four years at NUS, she did not start off as a confident practitioner as she felt she lacked hands-on practice.

Instead of giving up, the novice nurse sought opportunities to improve in this area. “When a colleague or patient needed help, I would volunteer so that I could practise my skills, something I could pick up quickly in six months,” she says.

Ms Ng won the annual Nurses’ Merit Award for her outstanding performance and contribution to the profession and patient care in 2018.

Not a desk-bound person, she relishes the constant change and challenges in her current job. “Every day is different here. Compared to the more established hospitals, we have a large proportion of younger nurses and managers and the working environment is very dynamic.

“It is also less hierarchical, making it conducive for me to speak up and challenge conventional ideas and practices,” says the self-confessed rebel.

They say that if you have a job that you love, you’ll never have to work a day in your life. Nursing is a job that makes me feel emotionally fulfilled at the end of a day.

Ms Ng feels that the key to effective nursing leadership lies in adapting her management style to the diverse team under her, comprising both local and foreign nurses, as well as the entry-level millennial nurses who are increasing in the workforce.

Having been a nurse for the past eight years, she has seen nursing evolve in tandem with the higher educational qualifications of nurses. “From simply providing handmaiden care, nurses are now steering patient management too,” she reveals. “Upping the educational levels and capabilities of our nurses will allow us to push the profession forward. We are still taking baby steps right now, but we’re getting there.”