When Yvonne Yap became a nurse 18 years ago, one comment she heard about her job was: “Nursing is just cleaning the backside. It is full of bacteria.” Then, many saw nursing as a lowly job, and care duties as dirty.
But Yap, who is now the deputy director of nursing at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital (KTPH), said these menial caregiving routines are the heart of nursing.
She recalled an elderly stroke patient she cared for in 2011 when she was a young nurse. “He was very unkempt and had a long beard that was very smelly. He was also uncompliant and kept trying to stand up and insisted on going home.”
After fruitlessly persuading him to shower all morning, Yap decided to shower him herself. She cut his beard, and washed and groomed him, all the while complimenting him on how handsome he looked after a little sprucing up. After the hour-long bath, the old man began to open up to the young nurse.
After his discharge, Yap visited him regularly over two years, and the two became friends.
“He lived alone and his house was very dirty. He didn’t want to go to a nursing home because he was very close to his late wife and kept all her items at home. With my community network and his family, I painted and furnished his house, packed his stuff, and hung up photos of his late wife,” she reminisced, adding that her old friend has since died.
Cleaning and bathing patients, Yap explained, is never about soap and water. It is about a moment of painful vulnerability for many patients.
“I don’t think any one of us would be willing to even bare ourselves physically to a stranger if we did not have to. For the patient to allow that, they’ve already lowered their dignity,” Yap said.
