Nurses' Graduation Ceremony And Presentation Of Merit Awards 2001

27 Jul 2001

By Mr Lim Hng Kiang

Members of the Singapore Nursing Board

Distinguished guests

Ladies and gentlemen

Introduction

It gives me great pleasure to officiate at this combined Nurses'Graduation Ceremony and Presentation of Merit Awards. I would like tocongratulate the 80 Enrolled Nurses, 5 Dental Therapists and 6 DentalSurgery Assistants who have successfully completed their training. Thisevent marks the beginning of your professional career as importantmembers of the healthcare team. My congratulations to the 51 MeritAward recipients. This is a national recognition of your outstandingperformance and dedication to the nursing profession.

Strategies to recruit and retain nurses

Nurses form the backbone of our healthcare services. It is thereforecritical for our healthcare system to have an adequate supply ofcompetent nurses. My Ministry has actively adopted a number ofstrategies to address this need.

      (1) Salary reviews are conductedyearly to ensure that remuneration remains competitive. Since lastyear, there have been two salary revisions for nurses.

      (2) The physical work environment fornurses has improved. Hospitals, national specialist centres andpolyclinics have been rebuilt or upgraded to provide a modern andcomfortable environment, and allow nurses to work withstate-of-the-art facilities.

      (3) Flexible working hours have been implemented and childcarefacilities are provided in line with the government's policy ofpro-family workplaces.

      (4) Last year, my Ministry introduced areturn-to-nursing scheme for nurses who have left practice. Thisscheme has drawn 56 nurses back to work. My Ministry is alsoexploring other means to facilitate nurses returning to practice.

Implementation of an enhanced clinical career track

Over and above these measures, there is a need to make nursing a morechallenging and satisfying career through job and work processrestructuring. In particular, we are creating a clear clinicalprogression path for nurses.

Traditionally in Singapore, the main mode for further advancement forSenior Staff Nurses is along the management or education track. Thisdiverts competent clinical nurses from their areas of expertise andlimits the opportunities for good nurses to develop clinically. In thelast few months, my Ministry has been working with the two healthcareclusters to create a new clinical career track.

RNs with appropriate qualifications and experience and who demonstrategood clinical performance can now be promoted to Nurse Clinicians andSenior Nurse Clinicians. Nurses in these new positions will remain inclinical practice, where they will be trained and be qualified toperform more complex and challenging clinical work. Nurse Clinicianswill have specific skills and job scopes in specified areas of nursing,for example, critical care, oncology, neuroscience, community andmental health nursing. It is targeted that by the year 2004, more than900 RNs, or approximately 25% of public sector RNs, would be trained tothis grade. Over the next six months, approximately 120 RNs from thetwo healthcare clusters would be advanced to these levels.

To ensure that the Staff Nurses and Senior Staff Nurses acquire thenecessary knowledge, skills and experience to become Nurse Clinicians,the two healthcare clusters would be setting aside funds for trainingand education. Sponsorships for local and international conferenceswould also be made available. To encourage Nurse Clinicians toimplement evidence-based nursing, priority would be given to thosepresenting papers or posters at these conferences. Clinical attachmentsto reputable centres overseas, for example, the US, UK, Australia andCanada, could also be arranged to give promising Nurse Cliniciansgreater exposure in their areas of practice.

To bring the Nurse Clinician and Senior Nurse Clinician Scheme intoeffect, we need to make some consequential changes to our workprocesses and career development paths. First, the basic care ofpatients relating to activities of daily living can and should beperformed by Heath Care Assistants. This will allow nurses to focus onproviding nursing care that require a higher level of skills.

Second, we need to better recognise the work of our Staff Nurses.Currently, Staff Nurses and Senior Staff Nurses comprise more than 80%of RNs in an institution. With the work restructuring, both healthcareclusters will be introducing an additional Senior Staff Nursepromotional grade. More than 500 RNs can expect to be promoted in thenext few months to this new grade.

Future challenges

My Ministry will monitor the impact of the work restructuring and newclinical career structure. The work restructuring would help us toachieve better compliance with accepted protocols and guidelines;reduce practice variability; increase clinical effectiveness andimprove health outcomes. The new clinical career structure would leadto increased job satisfaction amongst nurses and help us improverecruitment and retention.

Conclusion

This graduation ceremony is the last one conducted by my Ministry asfuture Enrolled Nurses who have successfully completed the NationalCertificate in Nursing course would be receiving their certificatesfrom ITE.

I would like to wish the Enrolled Nurses, Dental Therapists and DentalSurgery Assistants a successful and challenging career ahead. To theMerit Award recipients, I would like to encourage you to continue to remain true to your calling and be a source of inspiration to your colleagues. To all our nurses, you have chosen a noble profession. I look forward to your continued contributions to make our healthcare system even better.