Nursing - The Heart Of Healthcare

06 Oct 2003

The Ministry of Health, together with the two healthcare clusters, SingHealth and the National Healthcare Group, is embarking on a long-term publicity campaign to promote nursing as a challenging and rewarding profession. As Nurses form the biggest group of healthcare professionals, they play a vital role in patient care. With the tagline, "Nursing - The Heart of Heathcare," the campaign highlights the critical role played by our nurses, which requires them to have a wide array of hard and soft skills.

The campaign aims to correct general misperceptions that nursing is a low entry profession that does not require academic excellence. A focus group study conducted by the Health Science Career Promotion Committee (HSCP), comprising representatives from MOH and the clusters, revealed that some still see nurses as carrying out menial and repetitive tasks, not requiring great skills. Some also regard nursing as a generic profession with little job differentiation and limited career prospects.

The recent SARS crisis has corrected these perceptions somewhat. However, more can be done to promote Nursing as a challenging career, requiring knowledge, decisiveness and leadership. The campaign aims to increase awareness of Singaporeans that a nurse in today's context plays many roles. Besides being a care giver, a nurse is also an educator, life giver, decision maker, and a patient's best friend. Overall, a nurse is a professional who not only adds the soft touch to the medical profession but also plays a pivotal role in helping patients on the road to recovery after their surgery.

The campaign, which will also serve as a recruitment drive is aimed primarily at school leaving students and mid-career professionals and nurses who have left the profession. The campaign will kick off on 8 October 2003, with a series of advertisements showcasing real-life nurses in these different roles. The public will be able to catch these advertisements over all major media beginning from 8 October.

"Nurses have always been the unsung heroes. Through this campaign, we hope nurses and the Nursing profession will receive due recognition and this will in turn attract more high calibre individuals to join the profession," said Ms Ang Beng Choo, Chief Nursing Officer / Ministry of Health.