Scenes from the movie WIT (2001)

by Sheila May Ngan


The videos below were taken from the movie "Wit" starring Emma Thompson.


This is about a professor being treated for cancer.  In this snippet, I provided the interactions between the professor and her primary care nurse.


This movie had made great impact on me the first time I watched it in 2002.  I was a B.S. Biology student (as pre-medical course)  then and was being "pressured" by my parents to shift to nursing.

After watching the film, I realized what nursing is really about.  I felt so much admiration by what the nurse has demonstrated.  Caring, just as the nurse did, was a very powerful act of healing.    

It is not merely taking away a patient's pain; it is how you stay with the patient as he/she experience pain.  

It is not merely treating the disease; it is how you give assistance as she regains her health or maybe have a peaceful death.

Being a doctor is a great thing.  I was influenced then by shows like ER and Chicago Hope.  I wanted to solve medical mysteries and be a part of a medical discovery.  However, I am a very compassionate person.  I give passion to everything I do.  Being a doctor would be no problem in exercising compassion, but being a nurse expands it's possibilities.  

I thought, nursing isn't so bad after all.  In fact, I deemed it to be the best of all healthcare professions.  It's an interplay of medicine, health care, and humanity. Something about it does make you feel good and fulfilled; and that something was CARING. 

I said to myself, "this is what I want to become".  I eventually told my parents that I have decided to shift to nursing the next semester.  No pressure influenced my decision... all I had in mind was to care and give care.