18 Apr 2010
Specialised training for doctors, nurses and health-care professionals keeps SingHealth on top in clinical service, research and education
WITH its numerous health-care education and training programmes, SingHealth could grow to become a tertiary institution one day, according to Associate Professor Colin Song, SingHealth’s group director of education.
He says: “We plan to have a critical mass of doctors who can serve both as clinician educators and clinician surgeons.
“There is nothing to stop us from being a reputable tertiary institute which can really be a beacon for South-east Asia, comparable to what Harvard is on the east coast of the United States and Stanford on the west coast.
“Other than doctors, we also provide education and training for nursing and allied health professionals locally and in the region.”
Professor Song, who is also the head and senior consultant in the Department of Plastic Reconstruction and Aesthetic Surgery in Singapore General Hospital (SGH), says that SingHealth is now developing itself as an Academic Medical Centre.
“In order to realise this aspiration and to deliver quality health care to Singapore and even to the region, we would have to base our efforts on three major pillars: clinical service, research and education,” he says.
“To a large extent, we are still very much service-oriented, and rightly so. This is to us a strong responsibility, as the largest health-care group in Singapore, to deliver affordable and quality health care to Singaporeans.
“We have always had a strong history in medical education, and the opening of the second medical school, the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School in 2007, has encouraged us to put our focus on our medical education efforts.
“It was remarkable how, in a very short space of time, we not only have gone through our fourth intake of medical students, but we have also galvanised the time and efforts of many of our clinical faculty to become teachers for the Duke-NUS programme.”
“The primary purpose of doing that was to try and nurture a cohort of clinician scientists — people who spend 80 per cent of their time conducting research.
“So we have a major focus on the whys and wherefores of disease processes.”
Prof Song says he spends part of his time overseeing the US-style residency programmes introduced in March.
Under this programme for the Duke-NUS and the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at the National University of Singapore, future generations of specialists will be trained under the supervision of fully trained physicians in a clinical setting.
Their progress will be continually assessed until they complete their courses.
This marks the move away from the traditional British-based system, under which assessments of a doctor’s performance accumulates in intermediate and final exams.
This programme is the first of its kind in Singapore and it will groom a new generation of clinician scientists.
Says Prof Song: “When you talk about the Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School, it involves all the teaching institutions within SingHealth.”
SingHealth also provides continuing education for health-care professionals which involves mentors from its institutions such as SGH, Singapore’s first post-graduate teaching hospital and principal training ground for specialists; KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, trainer of health-care professionals specialising in obstetrics and gynaecology, neonatology and paediatrics; and Changi General Hospital, which offers health-care education that emphasises on general medicine, surgical practices and “soft skills” training.
Other mentors include those from the National Heart Centre Singapore, Singapore National Eye Centre and National Neuroscience Institute.
The SingHealth Alice Lee Institute of Advanced Nursing enhances skills and promotes lifelong learning among nurses.
Also, the SGH-PGAHI (Post-Graduate Allied Health Institute) provides professional development courses and clinical attachments for allied health professionals.
“We do not just train for SingHealth institutions, but for the nation and even the region,” Prof Song says.
“This educational collaboration galvanises resources, expertise and infrastructure to support the development of educational activities and build intellectual capital.”
You can call this nurse ‘doctor’
A veteran nurse, Dr Tracy Carol Ayre, rose to earn her PhD in nursing from her humble beginnings as a 17-year-old trainee at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH).
She is now the deputy director of nursing at SGH.
Her achievements were made possible by SGH’s policy of nurturing its staff and upgrading skills through scholarships and other training programmes, she says.
Her career in nursing began after she dropped out of junior college for financial reasons.
“I have been most fortunate to have excellent mentors when I was a student nurse, right through to today with my work as DN (director of nursing).”
She is thankful to the SGH’s Alice Lee Institute of Advanced Nursing for her doctorate studies, SGH for her master’s programme and the World Health Organisation for her basic nursing degree and post-graduate diploma in nursing management.
Over the years, she has won many awards, among which were the Gold Medal for Critical Care Nursing (1993) and the President’s Award (2007).
Says Dr Ayre: “Sometimes nurses don’t know the impact that they have or potentially can have.
“We may feel awe for overseas nurses who speak or present papers at conferences…But my experience when I was studying overseas and when I presented papers at international forums was that overseas nurses feel the same awe for Singapore nurses as they did not realise how advanced we are.
“Even the appraisers were full of praise for the good work that Singapore nurses are doing, and they encouraged us to publish more so that others will know.
“Each time we present or publish, we are selling Singapore and the organisation.
“My vision is for our nurses to speak up, challenge existing practices and to showcase the good work they are doing.”
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