Nurse Shanika Abeykoon looks after women struggling with their mental health on one of our inpatient wards at The Harbour Hospital in Blackpool.
Shanika, who like’s to be known as Shani, is also a fantastic artist and a single mum from Sri Lanka. She arrived at The Trust in April last year with her young daughter Mauli.
Shani recalls:
“I always wanted to be a nurse, I’ve always been compassionate, when I was six or seven, I was hospitalised, and I remember that I wanted to be like the nurses that looked after me.
My brother Lakshan is 13 years younger, so I was sort of a second mother to him, I’d bath him when he was a baby. I’ve always loved looking after people, and easing any suffering, I was perhaps influenced by my Buddhist culture.”
This South Asian Heritage Month Shani is keen to share something of her story growing up in Sri Lanka but also to celebrate a festival and educate us in the process with an artistic flair!
Shani says:
“I grew up in the northwestern province of Kurunegala, later moving the to the central province of Kandy. I spoke the language of Sri Lanka, Sinhala. I learnt English at school from the age of six for half an hour a day.
I had a beautiful childhood, but it wasn’t easy. My parents put a lot of pressure on me as the eldest of four. Both wanted me to achieve, and they wanted me to become a doctor. There was a lot of pressure. I was a high achiever and worked hard and got good top grades.
I was pretty keen to be an architect because I was good at art, craft and design but my parents told me no. They were pushing me to be a doctor. I struggled in some of the sciences, so I followed my heart and went down the nursing path and did a three-year nursing diploma, graduating from the College of Nursing in Kurunegala in 2015. I really enjoyed learning about mental health, and for my first job I got posted to the Colombo North teaching Hospital on the psychiatry unit. Colombo is the capital of Sri Lanka, then onto the critical care ward for a time.
“I really did love psychology, I used to analyse people around me, I understood that people would behave a certain way because of trauma and that they could be helped to recover. But there was stigma around mental health in Sri Lanka generally, and also around single parents, which is part of the reason I wanted to come to the UK to work. I didn’t want my daughter to have that stigma attached to her.”
When Shani came to the Trust last year, she studied for the mental health Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE), a practical exam internationally educated nurses must take, that is based on UK pre-registration standards and assesses how nurses assess, plan, deliver, and evaluate care. Successful completion is required for registration, and she passed with flying colours.
Shani says:
“I love life here, I have a supportive team around me at The Harbour, and I love that I can celebrate, and that my culture is recognised at the Trust.
On 29 July a big annual Buddhist festival happens in my home province Kandy, the Esala Perahera. It runs each August. The festival involves a grand procession, a vibrant celebration honouring the Sacred Tooth Relic of the Buddha, housed at the Temple of the Tooth (Dalada Maligawa). The festival is known for its elaborate parades featuring elephants, along with traditional dancers and drummers in ornate costumes and decorations.To mark it, I got out my paints and painted one of the parade elephants. I do hope like my artwork and that you have learnt a bit about Sri Lankan culture.”
Take a look at Shani's beautiful artwork:
