Speech by Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Health, at the Nurses’ Merit Award Presentation, 19 July 2016

Nurses,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

Introduction

1.            It is my pleasure to join you today to celebrate Nurses’ Day and recognise the achievements of our nurses.

2.            Nursing is a respectable and noble profession whose impact is far reaching. Nurses constitute the core of the healthcare workforce, and play key roles in delivering exemplary care to Singaporeans.

3.            The 100 nurses receiving the Nurses’ Merit Award today are testament to this. Each of you work in very different circumstances, across diverse care settings, tending to unique groups of patients. Yet, all of you demonstrate the same commitment to those under your charge and care, and have the same dedication to your profession. My heartiest congratulations and deepest appreciation go out to each and every one of you for leading the way in nursing.

CARE Package

4.            In 2014, the Ministry of Health accepted the 15 recommendations made by the National Nursing Taskforce in the areas of Career Development, Autonomy, Recognition and Education (CARE). We have fully implemented eight recommendations and will continue work on the remaining recommendations.

5.            We have been encouraged by the number of individuals choosing to join nursing since 2014. In 2014, 1,500 enrolled into nursing at ITE, polytechnics and degree level. In 2015, the total nursing enrolment increased by 21% to 1,820. Similarly, the number of individuals joining nursing this year has continued to increase to around 1,880. We want to attract more into the nursing profession, and will continue our efforts to draw young people into the sector. 

Stepping Up Nursing Attraction

6.            We are doing this through several ways. One exciting development is our engagement with secondary students on healthcare and nursing careers. We will be organising our first “HALO” (Health and Life-Skills) Exhibition with Ngee Ann Polytechnic at the end of August. At the exhibition, students will have an opportunity to play interactive games that will tap on what they have learnt in school and pick up life skills outside the classroom which can be applied to their daily lives and in emergencies. Through play, we hope that students will learn more about healthcare and develop a deeper interest in it as a career.    

7.            To further extend our outreach on healthcare careers to youths, we will be launching a roving healthcare mobile bus exhibition next year. The bus will travel to schools and allow students to learn, through interactive exhibits, about developments in the healthcare sector and the different roles that healthcare professionals play in caring for Singaporeans.

8.            Parents and family are important influencers in shaping the perception of nursing as a good career option. We hope to reach out to them, together with students, through the Channel 8 nursing drama series “You Can Be An Angel 2” (你也可以是天使2). After the good response to the first season in 2015, this second season is slated to air later this year in November. With a stellar cast and captivating storyline, I am sure that many parents and young people will be inspired by the daily work and challenges nurses face. Even as I speak, filming for the drama is in progress here today. So don’t be surprised to catch a famous face in the crowd, or a glimpse of yourself on the show! 

9.            The stories that nursing tells are hardly fiction. I was happy to learn that Mediacorp is also developing a special series entitled “Nursing Story” (一生~护事) for their documentary programme, “Tuesday Report” (星期二特写). Several of our nurses are involved in this programme, and we certainly look forward to hearing their insights into the joy of nursing.

Developing the Next Generation of Nursing Workforce

10.         We are also developing nursing leaders and extending the nursing career track through various initiatives. This year, we awarded 72 nursing scholarships to groom the next generation of nurse leaders. Of this, 62 were Healthcare Merit Scholarships (HMS) and Healthcare Merit Awards (HMA). This represents an increase of 44% from 2015. 10 were awarded under the new Integrated Nursing Scholarship (INS) introduced earlier this year for outstanding ‘O’ level graduates with leadership potential to pursue nursing studies from the polytechnic to the university level.

11.         There are also opportunities for our nurses to pursue greater professional development and career autonomy. The continuous development of the Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) role attests to this.

12.         The APN role was introduced in 2003 to enable Master-trained nurses to work collaboratively with physicians and other healthcare professionals to deliver advanced nursing care to patients. Today we have 172 full-fledged APNs providing more complex care in inpatient settings and APN-led clinics across acute and community sectors. The long-term goal is to have APN-run chronic disease management clinics at polyclinics, APNs in ILTC settings, as well as to lead community or home nursing teams.

13.         With these in mind, we will need to develop more outstanding nurses to become APNs. To grow the APN pool, we raised the yearly intake from 30 to 50. We increased funding support to cover a portion of salaries as well, to encourage APN training uptake and mitigate the service impact from the nurses’ leave for training.

14.         APNs themselves have had a hand in shaping the profession. The first Objective, Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) for APN Interns took place in October last year. This examination replaced the single interview panel, and tested the Interns’ hands-on competencies. Not only was the exam committee chaired by an APN, the majority of the exam committee and all the case writers were APNs.

Conclusion

15.         Our nursing workforce is the backbone of the healthcare sector, and the dynamo that will help drive the transformation of our healthcare system to meet the needs and challenges of the future. We will invest consistently in the recruitment, retention and training of our nurses to build a highly skilled nursing workforce that can bring better health and better care for our citizens.

16.         Once again, congratulations to the winners of the Nurses’ Merit Award. I wish everyone here a very Happy Nurses’ Day.

17.         Thank you.