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Caring That Knows No Bounds
Having been a nurse in two cultures, she brings a worldly wisdom to her patients' bedsides
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Sun takes the temperature of new patient Charles Carl.
Photo by: Michael Manning
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A Voice in the Night
Ying Sun
Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary
This past August, I had to have surgery to remove a tumor from the bottom part of my tongue. It was a frightening prospect, but I felt I was in the very capable hands of Dr. Richard Fabian at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary.
The procedure took nine hours during which time they literally cut my jaw and face apart to get to where the tumor was located. After the surgery, I woke to find that I had tubes coming from my nose and one for breathing in my neck. It was very scary, not being able to breathe as I was accustomed to and being in an unfamiliar place. When I was getting really anxious that first night, I heard what I thought was the voice of an angel reassuring me that everything was fine and that someone was there for me.
That voice was Ying Sun. The gentleness and kindness she brought me that night and for the rest of my stay there is something for which I am forever grateful. Throughout my stay, I had many caring professionals but none touched me more with her compassion and warmth than Ying. She was able to help me through the most terrifying time of my life. Her care was always top-notch, and I felt tremendous comfort in knowing I was in her very capable hands.
-Nominated by Ken Grillo
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Ying Sun remembers Ken Grillo well. "He was so scared when he came out of surgery after 14 hours," she says of the patient who nominated her as an outstanding nurse. "He had terrible problems breathing and he couldn't talk."
But for Ying, who decided to become a nurse during her girlhood in China, caring for people who are frightened and in pain is the reason she chose this profession.
"When my father was sick and was in pain much of the time, the nurses stayed with him," she recalls, "and I thought to myself how wonderful to be able to make people feel better."
The Language of Nursing
Ying received her Chinese nursing degree prior to moving to the United States with her husband in 1994. Before she began working at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Hospital in 1997, Ying had to pass the exam for nursing certification in Massachusetts. She also had to learn to speak English. Of the two, learning English was far more difficult.
Today Ying works during the day at Massachusetts General Hospital as a member of an IV team. In the evening, she's at Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Her husband is a physician, and the couple have an eight-year-old son.
Ying was born in a small town near Shanghai. Her nursing experience in China was vastly different in terms of medical technology. But the nursing was the same--caring for people, "helping them to feel better" doesn't change no matter where you work, she says.
"I work in the Intensive Care Unit and patients there are always very sick," she says. "It is so rewarding to see them getting better. Many of them stay in touch. They e-mail me and let me know about their recovery, and that's one of the best things about being a nurse. You watch people feeling better and getting well again."
But if the technology in Western medicine and Eastern medicine is vastly different, so too, according to Ying, are the expectations of her patients.
'What a Fine Nurse She Is'
"I think that people in China tolerate pain much more," she says. "In Chinese culture, to cry with pain is considered shameful. The patients don't cry until it's very, very bad. I had a caesarian section when I had my son, and the nurse kept asking me if I wanted pain medicine. I kept saying no, it was okay, I didn't need anything. Finally, she said, 'You had a C-section, you must be in pain.' And I really, really wasn't."
"Ying is a wonderful person," says Linda Belkner, Ying Sun's nurse manager at Massachusetts Eye and Ear. Pausing for a moment, she reaches for a word that would appropriately describe her employee. "Kind," she says. "Ying Sun is kind to everybody--visitors, patients, fellow workers. I don't remember once in all the years I've known Ying Sun that she's ever said no to anything I've asked her to do. To come from a different culture and to not only survive but to thrive, shows what a fine nurse she is."
Ying misses China, but both she and her husband don't have the time to visit anytime soon. He's busy with a research project and she, well, she's busy making people feel better.
2003 Profiles:
Mimi Bartholomay | Martha Gauvin
A Salute to Nurses 2003 |
The Caring Profession |
How You Can Become a Nurse |
2003 Featured Nominations
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