One stitch at a time: show patients you care

  

New Hospital Authority Board member Professor Agnes Tiwari Fung-yee values the importance of primary care and believes in helping people stay healthy since she studied nursing in the United Kingdom. After returning to Hong Kong in the 90s, she realised that her belief is the same as HA’s mission. That is why she is thrilled to be appointed a Board Member of HA.

Prof Tiwari lived in the U.K. for 24 years and was a nurse in an accident and emergency department. When she returned to Hong Kong in 1993, she started her career teaching student nurses. Today, she is the Chairman of the Nursing Council of Hong Kong, Honorary Professor of the School of Nursing of The University of Hong Kong, and Head of the School of Nursing at the Hong Kong Sanatorium & Hospital.

She believes that a little care of a healthcare worker has a profound impact on patients. “On my night shift in the U.K., I used to go to a patient’s bedside and quietly knit a sweater with her after finishing my ward rounds,” she recalls. “The lady was knitting sweaters in different colours and sizes and we discussed knitting patterns together.” The patient later passed away. Prof Tiwari chanced upon a journal article which read: “The kind nurse knitting with me was a moment I looked forward to every night during my hospital stay. However, the nurse can put the sweater she knits on her son but mine will only be a legacy for my children…” Prof Tiwari exclaims: “I knew it was ‘her’ but I didn’t realise at the time my visits were so meaningful to her.”

Prof Tiwari shares her experience of having a cataract operation earlier. She was scared before the operation but medical staff comforted her and relieved her anxiety. “When I was lying in the hospital bed, they gave me a blanket to keep me warm, chatted with me to distract my attention and were kind and attentive to me after the operation,” she says. “It was a good experience for me, albeit a patient.”

Prof Tiwari wishes to share with the HA Board the standards of care she experienced in the U.K. and in private hospitals in Hong Kong, aiming at continuously improving the quality of nursing care in public hospitals.