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A Farewell Tribute To Ms Ang Beng Choo By Paulin Koh (Chief Nursing Officer, Ministry of Health)
Beng Choo’s nursing journey started in 1969 when she began her nursing student training (PTS 63) at the School of Nursing. At that time, she was qualified to attend Pre-University, but she was clear that she wanted to be a nurse. An intelligent, quick witted and clear-minded person, it was no doubt that Beng Choo would go on to excel in a profession and career that she was passionate about.
A strong advocate in nursing and a highly capable nurse, Beng Choo was identified for leadership role and was awarded the scholarships for Bachelor of Applied Science (Nursing) at Curtin University, Australia in 1987 and Master in Public Policy in National University of Singapore thereafter. Beng Choo eventually served as the Chief Nursing Officer (CNO), Ministry of Health and concurrently as Registrar of Singapore Nursing Board from 2001 to 2007. She was awarded the National Day Award for Public Administration (Bronze) award in 2002.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work with Beng Choo when I was seconded to the CNO Office, Ministry of Health (MOH) in 2003. During the 2 years of my secondment, she was both my supervisor and mentor. Amongst the usual policy work related to nursing professional issues, practice standards and delivery of nursing service in the healthcare institutions, I had the privilege to learn about nursing manpower, amendment of government act and concepts of advancing nursing practice from a deeply knowledgeable nurse leader.
Working in CNO Office had allowed me to get to know Beng Choo better. Her first love in nursing was clinical work and she was an outstanding and resilient nurse and midwife with an astute clinical acumen which extended beyond her training as a nurse. Her eyes would light up whenever she talked about midwifery practice and the independent role of the midwife. She would often share her midwifery days working in the labour ward and how she could conduct forceps deliveries for difficult births – a procedure that she could do but would not do as she was a nurse, not a doctor.
During her tenure as CNO, Beng Choo had spearheaded several initiatives which became significant milestones for the development of nursing in Singapore. She was instrumental in starting the Master and Degree programmes in Nursing in NUS to advance nursing education and practice. With the start of the Master programme to train Advanced Practice Nurses (APNs), she led her team to amend the Nurses & Midwives Act to make provision for the regulation of APNs. During the course of this work, she provided visionary guidance in defining the role, scope of work, competencies and regulatory requirements of APNs practice, and coined the term ‘furnishing medications’ to pave the way for the current collaborative prescribing practice by APNs.
As CNO, she recognised the importance of benchmarking nursing manpower norms and championed the effort to provide minimum staffing, skill mix and specialty trained nursing norms to guide nurse leaders and institutions to provide appropriate nursing manpower in the delivery of safe and quality care. Today, nursing staffing norms are used by the ministry in the setting of policies, resources and regulation of practices and services.
As Registrar of Singapore Nursing Board (SNB), she imparted sound advice and leadership to strengthen SNB as a regulatory board. During her term as Registrar, she had successfully advocated for the Chairman of the Board to be headed by a nurse, a role that was previously held by the Director of Medical Services. This had made the profession extremely proud and it marked another significant milestone achievement in our nursing history.
On reflection, I am deeply grateful that working with Beng Choo during those 2 years had laid a strong foundation in my learning as a nurse leader. Furthermore, she never failed to inspire me with her visions and aspirations in nursing. We parted after that and I returned to my parent organisation.
Our paths crossed again almost a decade later, in 2014 when I took on the Chief Nurse job at Changi General Hospital and she was working as a Nurse Mentor there. I was looking forward to working with a strong nursing leader again and that had encouraged me to take on the new role. Beyond professional achievements, Beng Choo was a leader who believed in nurturing the younger generation and mentoring them to achieve greater accomplishments.
During her time in CGH, she had mentored numerous up and coming nurse leaders at CGH and had contributed to the talent development plan for the nursing department. She held high principles in professionalism and her mentees could trust and engage her in confidence during their mentoring journeys with her. To the nursing leadership team, Beng Choo had been an excellent resource person, sharing valuable insights and perspectives on nursing leadership and quality improvement practices during meetings and nursing retreats. As a caring colleague and friend, I would always remember how she would find time to have special lunch dates with us at the workplace or her home during her off days, where she would personally prepare home cooked food and even see to the set-up of the table so that we could have an enjoyable meal. This gesture was her trademark as many of us had benefited from the sharing of her wisdom through the conversations and enjoyed her recipes of peranakan assam prawn, yong toufu, laksa, etc.
Beng Choo retired in 2019, after 5 decades of illustrious service in nursing and healthcare. A talented and level-headed woman, with strong ethics and a quiet compassion known to those who knew her well, she had been integral to the elevation of nursing as a profession. Her dedication and contributions in nursing will be greatly appreciated.
Beng Choo will be dearly missed by all, but her legacy as an exceptional nurse who truly loved nursing; a leader, mentor and friend, will be remembered always.
May God bless Beng Choo, and may she rest in eternal peace.
Paulin Koh (Chief Nursing Officer, Ministry of Health)
11th July 2021
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