Finding a passion for Nursing
Seow Mei Poh admits that when she was young she was a happy-go-lucky child. “I basically did what I liked,” she recalls with a smile.
Her grades weren’t very good, and she candidly admits nursing wasn’t her first choice when she enrolled in ITE. The discipline which the course called for surprised the young student. She reveals that she struggled to keep up, and came close to quitting many times.
This coming from one of NYP’s top nursing graduates for 2017 seems surprising, but Mei Poh explains that she only found the passion for nursing when she’d graduated from ITE and started real work at a local hospital.
Inspired, she wanted to improve herself but was at a loss as how to proceed as her academic scores weren’t the best back then. An opportunity arose to take up a Higher Nitec certificate in Elder Care, and Mei Poh went for it.
She scored a perfect 4.0 GPA, each and every semester.
With those grades, getting her dream place in NYP’s Nursing School was a cinch. On why NYP? “I heard that NYP focuses more on practical hands-on teaching and it better suited my learning style.”
Mei Poh’s determination and passion didn’t go unmarked. Lecturers spotted her passion and nurtured her growth. She scored a place on the school’s Director’s List every semester, eventually graduating with a Diploma with Merit.
She’s back at work in the hospital now but looks back fondly on her journey at NYP. She came in as a mature student and was initially worried about getting along with her course mates, but it proved not an obstacle at all. Mei Poh singles out a favourite lecturer, Madam Tan Kum Tien: “She’s very supportive – always ready to listen and lend a helping hand whenever I needed it.”
Mei Poh has her sights on a Nursing degree, with a specialisation in Geriatric Care. Eventually, she wants to pay it forward and become a Nursing Educator.
Because We Can