Karunyah Paskaran, a young SGH nurse at the Urology ward, committed suicide a few days ago. She badly wanted to go back to Malaysia to attend her friend’s wedding and see her family but could not do so.
SGH Nurse Commits Suicide; MOH Silent on Staff Welfare
Ms Karunyah Paskaran, a young SGH nurse working in the Urology ward, committed suicide a few days ago.
According to her colleague, Ms Karunyah Paskaran had been struggling with anxiety. She wanted to go back to Malaysia badly to attend her friend’s wedding and see her family. However, she could not do so due to the situation in the ward.
Succumbing to mental stress and fatigue, she later jumped down from the building and passed away.
Friends and colleagues at the Singapore General Hospital described her as a nice and friendly nurse who worked hard with the team through the Covid-19 pandemic. Little did they know the problems she was going through would cause her to take her life.
Nurses’ Mental Health Neglected
It is no secret that staff at public hospitals have been overworked especially since the pandemic. Staff work long hours and could not go on overseas leave for almost two years until MOH finally lifted the suspension in October this year.
However, after a brief calm, the number of covid-19 cases surged again when the Ministerial Taskforce decided to open up. Now with the latest Omicron variant emerging, many are unsure if they would ever see the “light at the end of the tunnel”.
The ones who feel the immediate impact of all this are invariably the frontline workers. Working overtime has become the norm and despite the heavy workload, they cannot stop due to a shortage of manpower.
Is the Ministry of Health blind to the stress these healthcare workers are facing? Is SGH management paying enough attention to the welfare of their staff and hearing their stress calls? Do they even care about their staff?
The tragic death of this SGH nurse should not have to happen. Her death is a stark reminder not to take mental health lightly. Hospital staff are human too and they need rest.
MOH needs to look into what went wrong in Ms Karunyah Paskaran’s case before another nurse falls victim to anxiety and burnout.
As a nurse, we face tremendous stressors each day in the course of our work, from some colleagues who are hostile, from some patients or family who are unreasonable, from some doctors who are demanding, from new technologies, from many new workflows, from some stupid roadblocks…the worst of all is from your own boss, who is unkind and not supportive n not listening and not empathetic…Caring Leadership can go a long way, it is like a honeycomb in the rock, though the road is tough but we know in our heart that our boss is appreciative, and we are willing to suffer, of course, there will be better mental health at the end of the day.
This leadership thingy is so powerful, because to some people, this is the primary source of pride. pride in terms of human recognition, appreciation, nurturing and trust, in order to feel safe, secure and a sense of belongings…nursing is a caring profession, the spirit of caring not only needs to be translated in the external professional work that we do but also as a person, whether you are a leader or not, as a nurse, we need to be caring to ourselves and to the nurses vertically below us or laterally equal to us…leadership covering is an important factor to maintain nurses’ emotional resilience to keep one’s self sane, esp for retaining talents in nursing workforce, let alone the pandemic like now.
Good comments …you are bold and if you can point out the names of supervisors who are not supportive would be good
How many supervises do u want to be name ? Sgh is the biggest cluster. We nurse are being bullied . If u are short of manpower ,is not a reason, to lose your compassion to your staff.
If we are paid the extra amt. is cause we work very very hard. we local n foreigner nurse are going thru a lot of stress.
Plse put yourself in the shoes of the parent ,who has to receive her daughter in a BOX
Thats a suicidal task to ask of her. We have a sayingthat goes ‘ Nurses
eat their young. Bullying is the norm. Though statedclearly in the Nurses Code of Ethics colourand creed has no place in nursing,sadly it is untrue esp. among the nurse leaders.
Totally agreed, they felt money could solve problems but unfortunately not. I resigned from healthcare sector last sept not because of covid but to the bad management of the so call nurse managers.
Nurses are best at its core skills, nursing. Why put them there to manage people and admin work where , this form the weakest link in the nursing system? If ever MOH needs feed back, contact me. Mire than glad to help clear the weak link
Who do you have in mind who would be better
in managing nurses? Nobody knows the type of daily stresses encountered in nursing but a nurse.
The problem lies in their fear to do the right thing. Nurse leaders are silent by their fear of losing their jobs. Will a MBA help? No! Nurses need to believe in themselves. Nurse leaders need to lead nurses otherwise kindly leave your position for simpler jobs.
No need for your last remark. Everyone has the right to say something. You can agree or choose not to. Don’t ridicule anyone.
Well spoken Kary, please ask more nurses to speak up on social media..hopeful more lifes can be saved when they speak freely..
MOH should station police officer in AE for any verbal abusing to staffs . Let treat this seriously 😒
So sad for her I hope her family can take the news and able to come in to SG to attend to her funeral
And I am a stuff at sgh too
And I am a stuff at sgh too
Hey Mervin . Hang in there. We appreciate all that the frontliners are doing. You guys deserve yr break. I hope the relevant authorities look into yr welfare soon. Take care
And I am a stuff at sgh too I works as a porter
It is so sad that she could not see things a way out. If she had someone to confide in, the person might just have told her to eave her job and go back to Malaysia. Since she had given up on everything, she would have easily left her job, unfortunately when someone is in the spiraling mental state, the person cannot see another way out but to end everything by committing suicide.
I am so sad to hear this news. If only she have been referred on time for her depression we could have saved her . More need to be done for nurses .
Nurses have been struggling with proper manpower and management do not do anything about it despite the individual ward supervisors have highlighted. There are never ending verbally abusive relative and patient in the ward and yet no further action is done . We choose this profession because we want to care for the sick one and didn’t ask to suffer from burn out or being abuse . Please look into this before more nurses take our life
This is terribly sad day for our frontliners.
One of our comrades went in such a tragic way.
My appeal to Multi-Task Force and MOH to seriously look at the Mental wellbeing of our Nurses🙏🏻
Frontliners need the avenue to ventilate and share their challenges and struggles especially during this time.
Please provide various and sufficient resources for our frontliners to manage their stresses.
Another sad fact that make this even more worse is the yearly increment of wages in healthcare (eg. NUH, TTSH) is so much lower than what you expected.
In the same related ward , a fellow colleague who had worked with SGH for more than 8 years and her superior declined to sponsor her to take a diploma in nursing course. The SGH staff then paid the bridging course and she again approach her superior to request SGH to sponsor her for diploma course , however her request was again rejected by her superiors. Now she have to resign her job and self sponsor herself to take up a full time diploma in nursing to upgrade her skills . Why SGH and her immediate superiors didn’t support her ? She is the sole bread winner supporting her single mother and does not have a house on their own as well . SGH superiors in this ward only cares for their own needs and does not seem to care for their staffs and MOH does not have any auditing to validate and straighten irregular activities that happens in hospitals between superiors who don’t support their staffs. Why SGH does not sponsor and support staffs who wish to upgrade themselves freely . This is a poor management and irregular system which SGH , MOH had neglected.
Nursing board should be blame on this for lacking of welfare towards our singaporean nurses. SGH also should be investigate. Or the ward manager have to be brought in for investigation… could be she was force to work and was not granted leave even she applied for it…. nursing board u really need to look around and see whats happening in the ward.. does the staff happy and well taken care by the company?
May her soul rest in peace. Amen 🙏.
My condolence to the family .
Ex Staff Nurse of SGH now CEO of a pharmaceutical company.
SG-1 has given appreciation to the healthcare front liners
and he thought that must be more than enough!
Sorry, only the cronies can get $$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Its never about money if you care about people. I believe the minstries truly believe in the welfare of the frontline workers but unfortunately it is mismanaged lower down the line.
Contact me. Thanks!
Dong Shi Hui
[email protected]
6354 4078
Block 858 Yishun Avenue 4
#05-95 Singapore 760858
I guess not only SGH, we also have heartless and inconsiderate ward supervisors in CGH. On top of the 12hours shift, manpower shortage, feeling burnout with covid situation in the ward, mind you, favouritism is a norm in CGH as well. The management NEEDS to be more considerate with their staff. Not by choosing your skin colours to be promoted fast, got penalised for taking MCs, child care leave, family care leave and whats more, putting at an unfair disadvantages for not being proactive in the ward just because you got pregnant again.
We also voiced out to the management to give us extra off days to rest BUT we were labelled as a calculative individuals.
So yes, I agree that the nurses mental health is not being met and not supported at all in CGH as well.
You are only working there, you are not the boss, or you own the business. just do your part don’t do extra work you won’t get pay extra or they really appreciate you, once you started doing extra you will always be the first to call upon , they don’t care how you feel, always say no to extra work, I don’t know how to say no to my boss request for extra work, when no one wants to do it, my boss will always approach me first, they don’t care if you are happy or willing to take the job. Remember to say no first, you are only working there and you are highly paid, nurses are overwork and the pay sucks, working hours also sucks, shifts work sucks, arrogant doctors sucks. Think for your well being, only you can think for your well being, you won’t die if you don’t have this job. Remenber to say no, this is a life lesson from someone that are very older than you, please keep that in mind, just resigned if you really can’t take the pressure, like a mention you don’t own the business. Fuck the inhuman boss who don’t let you take leave, the leaves are for you to take, clear your leaves go relax or stay at home and do nothing, you deserved it
Nurses in Singapore are trapped because of this COVID situation, most nurses in Singapore are foreigners and have family outside Singapore. Singapore government should make a step to at list gave them a vacation to see their loved ones. Imagine those parents out there never touched their babies or children for 2 years way back at their own countries. As a result, most of them will resign, or migrate to other countries where they can bring their families causing continues declines of nurses in Singapore. Nurses in Singapore will be overworked and leads to anything that is not good to them.
There are many more cases of people over working in Singapore. We should all be in control of our stress level by taking necessary breaks if we feel we are reaching our limits. Never ever let your employer control your life. We have the rights and power to say we need a break.
Oh do stop this blaming on her decision to end her life on MOH! Over 1000 nurses in Singapore resigned during Pandemic! For decades, highest suicidal rate for the profession is In Animal Care and Environment! No one gives a sh&# about us!
I hope these nurses don’t turn into serial killers to finish off patients! No empathic whatsoever to her! Her workmates in health care were unable to detect her signs of depression?? So much for being called professional in health care!
Put yourself in her shoes before saying. Will you be sympathetic if it happens to your loved ones? Do you still have feeling or sold it ?
Grow up. You’re like a child ranting for not getting a snack. Silly
What is the staff union
Doing about the issue
Its thier job also right. To bring up problems face by the staff at the hospital. Pls nurses work like crazy i have
Seen. Money is not everything.
The immediate supervisor, till the nursing manager and every superior incharge of this ward must be dismissed immediately and further displiminary actions must be taken against them if they were found guilty
How about those who insisted on opening the borders shouldn’t they be acountable and responsible? Did Lawrence Wong cried before?
I was first exposed to the work of nurses when, as a trainee SAF Medical Orderly, our platoon was sent to SGH to observe and train. It became abundantly clear to me that the nursing profession is the most under-appreciated profession & certainly one of the most noble. I have held this stand through the decades. Nurses are our everyday heroes & deserve our respect & recognition.
Just so sad.
I think there should have a nurse club setup just like the army has safra, the police has the hometeam. This club enables nurses to spend their of days relaxing there and there should have activities organize for their well being, it is time that the ministry look into this!
Did they not show their appreciation by giving a one time $4000 to all frontliners?
How about those who insisted on opening the borders shouldn’t they be acountable and responsible? Did Lawrence Wong cried before?
Pls do not jump into conclusions, the truth has yet surfaced totally why Karunyah wants to end her life abruptly in her workplace.
Other than working stress and pressure, there are possibility other personal reasons that caused her to lost control in that split of second she ends her life.
If MOH don’t open their eyes, a good pool of talent will be resigning for countries needing them. In Australia and Great Britain , they are already providing talented nurses with PR status and I don’t see why can’t MOH do the same here.
Despite our medical cost is super expensive and not structured enough for the medical benefits.
MOH, please give a serious thought in this.
Thank you
I left the singapore healthcare system because there were too many problems in the the structure. Problems that are deeply in-grained. I didn’t have the courage to fight against it. So i could only save myself, by leaving.
Ministers & MPs should help them as volunteers to have a feel of the ground.They need the experience as they have been payed more than enough..
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I’m and outsider of this professioner and totally agreed to all the comments on the welfare matters mentioned for the nurses.. It is time for MOH / Minister to look into this matter seriously. It is long overdue that the MOH / Minister shall look into setting up a communicating channel / hot line like the Army / Home Affair for the health care professionals to air their grievances and to provide fairer environment and treatment to all, it shall be chaired by a powerful authority like CEO / PS of MOH so as to attend to the burning issue/s raised from the floor and investigating discrimation issue/s on the floor. If possible setting up a club house for them to relax during their vacation.