National University of Singapore, Singapore

Andrea Lagarde | Year 3 Bachelor of Nursing (Full-time) student

During my exchange, I enjoyed meeting and learning from all the wonderful people that I met both in National University of Singapore (NUS) and the Orange Valley Nursing Home. In NUS, we met nursing student buddies that took us around the NUS campus and Singapore and brought us to more local places rather than the common tourist spots, making the experience more special. We had the chance to see their nursing lab sessions, lectures and anatomy lab sessions and compare them to the system in Hong Kong. Ultimately, we found that as nursing students, we have the same aspirations and struggles. We got to share about Hong Kong’s healthcare system and the current problems that it is facing, as well as share about our lives as HKU students.

My experience at the Orange Valley Nursing Home was just as fruitful. We had the chance to feed and interact with people with dementia, as well as the staff and nurses working there. I gained a deeper understanding about the nature of dementia and how it can be really debilitating. We also performed basic services such as measuring patients’ BMI. It was very meaningful; through this, I was able to gain important insights that I will cherish forever and will use for my future nursing practice.