Never Too Old: She's been a nurse for six decades, but this 81-year-old doesn't want to quit
In the fourth part of a series on elderly who choose to spend their golden years working, CNA speaks to SGH nurse Loke Lye Chan, who says the thought of retiring never crossed her mind.
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SINGAPORE: Enter one of the rooms in the basement of Singapore General Hospital’s (SGH) main building and a constant clanking and rattling of metal greets you.
One side of the room is filled with metal shelves, each neatly stacked with packages of varying sizes. Each package contains a complex set of surgical tools, with the heaviest weighing 10kg. These shelves are grouped according to departments, as seen from a myriad of signs such as orthopaedic, ENT surgery, neurosurgery, plastic surgery and dental.
Beyond the maze of shelves are washers, sterilising machines, trolleys and busy healthcare workers in scrubs.
This is where employees of the sterile supplies unit work round the clock to clean, assemble and pack surgical equipment used by operating theatres and procedure rooms throughout SGH, and even the nearby heart and eye centres.
One of them is senior enrolled nurse Loke Lye Chan, who makes sure that sterile surgical tools reach the hands of those who require them to save lives every day.
Madam Loke has been working at SGH for six decades, but the 81-year-old said the thought of retirement never crossed her mind.
“If I’m healthy, I will continue to be a nurse,” she told CNA in an interview earlier this month. “My job is very professional and I like my job very much. If not, I wouldn’t work until today.”
"LOOKING AFTER PATIENTS MAKES ME HAPPY"
It all started in 1962, when she saw a newspaper advertisement calling for nursing trainees.
It seemed like a good opportunity given how nursing is a “very noble” profession, she recalled. While unsure if she would make the cut, she decided to give it a shot.
Then just 20 years old, she made it through the selection process and went through training for nearly two-and-a-half years at the now-demolished Thomson Road Hospital. Some days could drag on but the second eldest of seven children did not think it was unbearable.
“After I got (the training), I was very happy,” she said. “It’s not tough. It’s okay, you just have to be patient and tolerant.”
