NUS Nursing launches Licence to Care: An illustrated graphic novel about undergraduate nursing experience

The manga traces the journey of a group of students pursuing Nursing as a lifelong vocation, how they aid in the fight against Covid-19, and manage the anxiety of working on the frontlines while keeping their families safe.

Singapore, 12 May 2022 – In tandem with International Nurses Day, Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (NUS Nursing) at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine (NUS Medicine) launches its first illustrated graphic novel, “Licence to Care”. The book chronicles the experiences of a group of nursing students, as they learn to administer the many layers of care that nurses provide, while overcoming personal challenges and learning lessons about empathy and compassion.

The novel is the second of a creative manga series initiated by the School, to generate awareness and share intimate aspects and experiences of the nursing school life in an engaging and easy-to-read manner. The first manga, “White Coat Tales”, was published in February 2021, and traces the learning journeys of five students who learn to come together and support one another through the rigours of medical school. Both novels are part of an array of creative communications materials by NUS Medicine to share insights and information about the School in a fun and novel way.

About the story

Five students at NUS Nursing learn what it takes to become nurses. Excited to embark on their journey to become nurses, Year 1 students Ashley, Khairul and Sophia enter NUS Nursing and meet Year 2 seniors Raj and Ling Shan, as they receive training at the school labs and hospital attachments. When the COVID-19 pandemic strikes and the student nurses are called to the frontline, they are pushed to the breaking point. Apart from disruptions to classes resulting from the pandemic, they face the mix of emotions and struggles that are familiar to healthcare workers in the early days of the pandemic. As they step up to render help during the outbreak, they don the personal protective equipment (PPE) to serve at the frontline, deal with misunderstandings from society and even their closest family members, and learn to cope with the anxieties of serving vulnerable patients and receiving quarantine orders. As the demands of school life bring personal secrets and tensions to the surface, they learn to give and accept support, and rediscover what inspired them in the first place.

In addition to the milestones, academic curriculum and clinical attachments that students undergo at NUS Nursing, the novel provides an insider’s look at the joys and struggles that nursing professionals often experience.

The story in the novel was conceptualised with the help of faculty members, students and alumni of NUS Nursing, who shared about what inspired them to pursue nursing, their experiences in school and at clinical attachments as undergraduates, as well as the expectations and misunderstandings they often face from family, friends and society.

Following which, the novel was developed with reviews and inputs from alumni and educators at NUS Nursing, Dr Jocelyn Chew and Darryl Ang, who are also research fellow and PhD student respectively, as well as the Communications team at NUS Medicine.

Published by Epigram Books, Singapore, the novel is written by Lydia Shah, and richly illustrated by Dan Wong, who have both also received inspiration from family members in the healthcare profession.

Professor Emily Ang, Head of NUS Nursing and Group Chief Nurse, National University Health System, said, “It was perhaps fitting that this book was created during the COVID-19 pandemic, as the crisis brought to the fore the psycho-social challenges that nurses face even without a global health emergency on their hands: they are abused and sometimes shunned by unthinking members of the public as well as kith and kin who believe that healthcare workers carry pathogens, and have to cope with workplace anxieties and mental stress, all while handling the ardours of hospital shift work.”

Professor Chong Yap Seng, Dean of NUS Medicine, said, “With the two novels in the popular manga format, we hope that readers will be able to enjoy and appreciate the discoveries, delight and struggles which our students go through in the journey of pursuing Medicine or Nursing as a lifelong vocation. Apart from the rigours of the curriculum and training received at the School, these experiences develop our medical and nursing students into knowledgeable and highly competent healthcare professionals who also serve with empathy and compassion. For ‘Licence to Care’ especially, it is a tribute to all nurse practitioners in the world who have stayed the course in caring for their patients above their own needs, through the toil of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The book is available for sale at Epigram Coffee Bookshop, Kinokuniya and other bookstores in Singapore. Orders can also be made via the Epigram Bookshop website. It is retailing at SGD $24.90 before GST.