A gentle-looking
lady with a tough personality and stoic determination from a humble family decides
to take charge of her own fate and destiny.
Wong Pei Yee,
29, determined not to be despised by her skeptical relatives and society had
chosen education as her route towards success.
“I believed that
education would help change my fate and it is proven that it does,” she was
pleased that her strength of mind made her who she is today.
Voted by
students as their favorite lecturer in the nursing faculty of Segi University,
Wong’s slogan is “work with my heart.”
Disbelieving the
votes she received, she was definitely comforted that her students felt her
sincerity in teaching and appreciated her effort in training them for a better
future.
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| Interacting with students - fullest satisfaction and greatest pleasure. |
“Things are different from the past,” she
said.
Few years back,
an occupation as a nurse is a secure rice bowl for many whose family condition
does not allow them to further their studies in other fields.
Wong was one of
them and she was lucky to receive a full scholarship in nursing offered by Tung
Shin Hospital and a promised job position upon completion.
She knew that
grabbing this opportunity was a stepping-stone to another mile-stone in her
life and thus went for it without much hesitation.
At present, Wong
pointed out that there is an influx of unemployed nurses in the country due to the
many government and private hospitals who started internal nursing training.
“More than half
of my students who graduated are unemployed,” she sighed.
Hospitals only
recruit those who are really excellent, outspoken and outgoing. Wong deeply recognizes
this state of affair and is concerned about the future of her students.
“That is why I
have high expectations of my students because I want them to excel, to have a
job, build their career and be successful in life,” she continued.
In the students’
eyes, Wong is an approachable, easy going, interactive and a very helpful
lecturer.
However, there
is one thing that she cannot tolerate which is students dozing off in class and
neglecting their future.
“Regardless who
they are, poor or rich, if they don’t help themselves, how am I supposed to help
them?” she said.
She will tell
these students off or even expel them from class until they admit their
mistakes.
“It’s a pity for
those who spend time and money coming to university but are not learning
anything,” she said.
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| One person one vote. |
Nevertheless, all
the scolding, strictness, sternness, shouting and yelling in class does not mar
the love and esteem her students have for her.
“She is our
lecturer and also our friend,” said Muhammad Firdous, 21.
“She jokes and
she scolds but she’s always there for us,” said Fadhilah, 21.
“We all know
that she means well and we cherish that,” continued Nur Marissa, 21.
Apart from
teaching with sincerity, Wong is determined to improve and enhance her teaching
skills.
“I’m glad that I can improve myself through
development courses provided by the university in order to adapt to the current
educational transformation,” she said.
These training mainly equip educators with skills to encourage interactions and students
participation in class activities.
However, not all
educators can adapt and implement this new student-oriented teaching style fast
enough.
“Learning and
growing with them, I guess that’s what makes my students like me.”
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| Group study - enhancing interactions and the sharing of knowledge. |
After completing
her nursing course, Wong began her journey of a nurse in Tung Shin hospital
Intensive Care Unit (ICU), a place where she learnt from mistakes and grew up
expeditiously.
“The stress
level of being a nurse and lecturer is a world of difference.
“As an ICU nurse,
you deal with the fine line between life and death almost every minute and you
may not even have time to go to the lavatory or eat,” she recalled.
“Every morning
starting 7.45 am, we are in a perpetual state of war.”
Being young and
impetuous, her eagerness to rescue one’s life had caused Wong to make a mistake
that she could never forget.
During a first
aid treatment, she accidentally punctured a hole in the patient’s lungs due to being
overly anxious in getting air supply to the heart.
Feeling horror
and panic with the damaged done, she suffered from guilt and regret after the
incident.
“I felt really
bad to cause inconvenience, physical sufferings and monetary losses to the
patient because the patient is burdened with extra medical fees to fix the hole
I made and bear the cost of the unnecessary extended stay in ICU,” she said.
“However, my
bosses, doctors and mentors comforted me that making mistakes are something you
cannot avoid in life,” she recalled.
The intense
working environment gives her little time to be guilty and her remorse was soon
drowned away by heavy workload.
Nevertheless,
since then, this experience had made her a calmer and more rationalized person.
“I pick up really a lot from my mentor, who
was my principal during my practical days and my boss today,” she said.
Reaching a
certain age, Wong has plans to build a family of her own.
“I realized that
I need to balance my family and working time,” she said.
Currently
pregnant, a lecturer’s job allows her to have stable working hours while
fulfilling her passion in educating the next generation of nurses.
“I never
regretted my choice.
“I could never
able cope with the workload and amount of stress in the ICU with my pregnancy,”
she said.
Contented and
grateful with her current life, Wong yearns to be a better educator in the future.
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