The National University of Singapore will be offering a degree
course in nursing next year in a bid to attract more Singaporeans
to nursing.
Currently, foreigners make up 25 percent of the nurses in Singapore
and they come mainly from the Philippines, India, China and
Myanmar.
The shortage in nurses is expected to worsen as Singapore's
heathcare needs increases with a rapidly ageing population.
And it is about time.
Joanne Pang, a nurse clinician with NUH, says a degree in nursing
here has been a long time coming.
She had to take a part-time course while continuing work in
Singapore so that she can upgrade her diploma to a degree.
Currently those who wish to own a degree have a few options.
One is to take a part-time course at the Singapore Institute of
Management that ties up with the University of Sydney or take up a
course with the Singapore Nurses Association with Australia's La
Trobe University.
Ms Joanne Pang said: "When I was doing my degree I actually had to
take my own time to attend classes. And on top of that we actually
do not have proper guidance in the sense that when we have an
assignment given to us, we really had to do it and when we do have
questions or when we do have problems, we have nobody else to look
to other than our old colleagues who have done the degree
before."
Senior Staff nurse Jurainah Salleh also gave the move the thumbs
up.
Jurainah Salleh, Senior Staff Nurse, NUH, said: "It will not only
improve my knowledge in nursing but it will also give me better
experience and exposure to be able to mingle with other graduates
in NUS, for example the doctors, the dentists, the pharmacists
which will in the end be my fellow colleagues."
The move is aimed not only to raise standards and reduce the
shortage of nurses here but also to improve the quality and give
opportunities for nurses to upgrade their skills.
Nurses are now expected to take on greater roles and
responsibilities in the provision of good heathcare.
As such, there is great demand for highly skilled nurses.
The NUS medical faculty will be housing the three-year Bachelor of
Science in Nursing programme.
The University plans to enrol 50 in its first intake.
But it may increase the number to 200 over the next few
years.
It's opening its doors to A-level and polytechnic holders as well
as working nurses who want to upgrade their diplomas to a
degree.
Professor Lee Eng Hin, Co-chairman, NUS School of Nursing Working
Committee, said: "We will have our current lecturers from the
faculty of medicine, faculty of science as well as the faculty of
arts and social sciences. However, they will not be able to teach
the nursing area as much so we will have to recruit probably some
very good people from foreign countries to do that."
Out of 18, 000 nurses in Singapore, only 15 percent are
degree-holders - a sharp contrast to many other developed countries
where most nurses have degrees.
Ang Bee Choo, Deputy Chairperson, NUS School of Nursing Working
Committee, said: "Nursing is lacking far behind. In fact in our
region, the Asian region, we're the only developed country that
doesn't have a programme. Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam has a
programme. So there is a lot of catching up to do. We hope with
this degree programme, more locals will do nursing and will help
alleviate the shortage of nurses and bring down the percentage of
foreign nurses."
The degree programme will be run with money donated by the Lee
Foundation. - CNA