An engineer’s thoughts following Jaga-Me nurses on home visit: Lee Chuan

Hi everyone, I am Lee Chuan, a software developer at Jaga-Me.

When I first joined Jaga-Me, I was an intern with little experience of home care. I had the opportunity to follow one of our nurses to a home visit to understand more of what a nurse does in Jaga-Me. It was an enriching experience because it shows me what we are working for and strengthens the core of everything we do here, which is to provide safe, dependable and quality home care to the masses no matter whether we are techies or marketers or operators. Here is my reflection on my home visit with Ling, our Jaga-Me nurse as well as a co-founder!

Lee Chuan

Position: Tech Jedi/ unofficial Chief Happiness Officer

Role: Develop JagaPro Web Application

I followed Ling for a Nasogastric tube insertion- a clinical procedure case. She had already been caring for this patient for over half a year, and the purpose of this time’s home visit was so Ling could hand-over the case to a new JagaPro.

When I first entered the patient’s room, I noticed that the family had turned the room into a ward-setting specially dedicated to caring for the patient. But despite the medical equipment, the entire room was decorated in a very homely setting. There were cushions, and a television in the corner playing Korean dramas. I realised that they probably decorated the room to provide the best care and environment to make it as comfortable as possible for Ah Ma. After all, home is where people often feel most comfortable in, especially when you are ill. People often engage in home making practices to make a space into a place of meaning and comfort, and that I something I really appreciate.

During the procedure, the Ah Ma was quite resistant to doing the procedure and was trying to distract us by talking. Her family had to coax her many times to get her to finally do the procedure. During the process, she wanted to reach out to someone, to hold someone’s hand. So I lent my hand to her. When we were about to leave, she did not really want to let go.

As we had to bid goodbye, I couldn’t really communicate with her because she only spoke dialect. But I realised that it is really about being present for someone when they are suffering, not so much of the words. Just being physically present is quite hard to do now of days with the advent of technology, but it is more important in our society now than ever.

I still had a job to do. I managed to speak to the JagaPro and got to understand what could make a better user journey for her. This gives me spurts of inspiration for features I could add to the Jaga-Me app in order to make the entire customer journey and business operations smoother.

Lastly, Home care is supposed to be about being in the comforts of your own home with your family, As Ah Ma required long term care, professional home nursing care was really a good solution for the family, because her elderly husband wouldn’t have to travel to and fro the nursing home in order to spend time with his wife. The home visit experience showed me how the convenience and ease of mind home care services bring to families and caregivers can matter a lot day-to-day.

If you are a caregiver that requires respite care or long term home care for a loved one who requires more medical attention, we have an AUGUST PROMOTION in celebration of National day SG52 for our care services, for just $20/hour (up $25). Remember to our Facebook page to get more Jaga-resources that may provide useful information for your caregiving journey!

From our Jaga-Me family, to yours.