What nursing means to me: Haiping Tang

I have been working at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre since 2009. I have been blessed to work at such wonderful organisation, where I not only help people but also learn a lot from my colleagues, clients and their family. 

It’s important that we can provide individualised care. After they are diagnosed, it’s important we listen to them, to what they want and give them time. 

It’s so rewarding when you can make a difference to a patient’s life. When they come back a few years after being diagnosed, they still remember you, and can see you as a friend. 

What makes me proud to be a nurse is that through my work I can be helpful. I can see people’s lives changing. 

The story I share here is just one example to reflect on how my work has made me grow both professionally and personally. 

In 2017, I met Hua (not real name) at the HIV unit at MSHC when he was newly diagnosed HIV. Originally from China, he relocated to Australia to study education at university. He was shocked, upset and in overwhelming fear following his diagnosis. He worried a lot about his career, immigration uncertainty to remain in Australia, his future and pressure from family. 

Since then, I have seen him quite a few times over the past few years, and I have observed big progress from being extremely terrified with his new HIV diagnosis, to currently working as a qualified teacher at a primary school. He works hard to help his students and others, and his attitude towards life is impressively positive. 

The aspect that affected me most from my experience with him is from his mother. He disclosed his HIV diagnosis to his mother in China not long after receiving it and he told me his mother planned to visit him in Australia. 

Sexual Health Nurse, Melbourne Sexual Health Centre Haiping Tang: "It’s so rewarding when you can make a difference to a patient’s life."

I am also a mother from China. I know there is a lot of misinformation and prevalent stigma towards HIV in China. Considering his mother’s language barrier, I offered to have a chat with his mother once she arrived in Australia. 

I met his mother at TGR clinic a few months later. She is an ordinary Chinese woman and had limited knowledge of HIV. However, her support and acceptance of her son’s diagnosis shook my heart. She was grateful for what we did for her son. A year later, I received a jewellery box with a card from Hua’s mother in China to thank me for my support of her son. It was brought in by Hua and left at reception when I was away on leave. 

I have kept the jewellery box at my bedroom since, it has always reminded me to be a more supportive and helpful nurse and a better mother. This is my experience which demonstrates why I love my nursing work and how it has helped me grow both professionally and personally.