Nurse-paraglider opens patient’s heart over coffee break

Chiu Ho-nam
Registered Nurse (Psychiatric)
Kwai Chung Hospital

“Don’t let hospital walls trap a patient’s heart. Hang out with them, have a coffee break with them, or even fly up to the sky, all these help patients recover,” says 29-year-old Registered Nurse Chiu Ho-nam.

As a psychiatric nurse working in acute care unit, Ho-nam deals with patients suffering from severe mental illness. “Treating mental illness is not only about medication, but also multidisciplinary care,” Ho-nam believes ‘Model practice ward in acute care’ benefits patient’s recovery. The person-centred delivery model, jointly developed by the healthcare team and patient, strengthens caregiver support, provides diversified care options, and thus optimises psychiatric in-patient experience. He often works with his supervisors and colleagues to improve clinical services, such as delivering children and adolescent management technique in psychiatric acute care unit through working with nurse consultant.

Rapport building is essential to mental illness recovery. Ho-nam recalls a patient who was agitated and refused treatment due to outcry for discharge almost every day. He even resorted to violence, so restraint and sedation were often applied at the beginning. One day, Ho-nam talked to the patient who was emotionally stable. Spoke in a hushed tone, the patient said he just thought that he would never recover so he resorted to extreme measures to leave the hospital. Ho-nam then suggested to the case doctor that he would accompany the patient to the hospital restaurant for a coffee break and strolled in the garden so that the patient might develop a tinge of hope. To everyone’s surprise, the patient later became very cooperative in treatment and did not resort to violence anymore. Since then, Ho-nam has become patients’ company and peer, bringing them outdoors, strolling around the hospital garden and playing ball games in the playground. These activities open patients’ heart and rebuild their confidence.

In addition to work, Ho-nam is a member of the Hong Kong paragliding team. Besides regular training and competition, he and his friends often organise voluntary paragliding activities for the disadvantaged and rare disease sufferers in the community. Apart from fulfilling their dreams, he also wishes to promote social integration and public awareness of rare diseases in society.