19 Jan 2011
By Alexis Cai
The elderly can expect to get better care from nurses who are trained to meet their needs, with revamped training courses aimed at boosting their capabilities.
The Workforce Development Agency (WDA) has teamed up with Singapore General Hospital (SGH) to fine-tune the nursing-care specialisation track of WDA’s Health-care Support Workforce Skills Qualifications framework.
The changes are aligned with the growing need for intermediate- and long-term care services in community hospitals and nursing homes as the population ages.
SGH’s SingHealth Alice Lee Institute of Advanced Nursing was appointed by WDA as the first hospital-based Continuing Education and Training centre.
It has trained over 1,000 health-care support workers to date, and is looking to train another 680 over the next three years.
“The training will equip them with skills that are applicable at the workplace, and help them remain employable in the health-care industry,” said SGH’s group director of nursing, Associate Professor Lim Swee Hia.
Trainees will specialise in various health-care support functions, such as sterilisation services, operating-theatre support and administrative support.
Changes in the training programmes, which will be fully phased in by April, will include the addition of new course content. For example, new nursing trainees will be trained in caring for patients with dementia.
Some existing modules will also be expanded. One such module, previously called “Perform Last Offices” and now renamed “Care for End-of-life Clients”, used to focus only on how to handle dead bodies.
It now includes training on how to handle grief, ethnic and cultural sensitivities, and identifying signs and symptoms before death.
WDA provides funding support for these courses to Singapore citizens aged 35 and above. Employers who send staff to these training programmes are also entitled to payroll support.
Graduates from 18 training programmes by SGH received their certificates from Minister for Health Khaw Boon Wan at SGH yesterday.
Among the 300 recipients was Mr Lim Meng Jin. The 46-year-old has a diploma in mechanical engineering and previously worked in a factory, before signing up for a nursing course at a job fair last year.
He has since joined SGH as a patient-care assistant after completing the six-month course.
“It is a chance for me to give back to society and, in time, I can take care of my own parents,” he said.
Email: czhimin@sph.com.sg
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