Lee Foundation Professionalism Award
Published: 15 Oct 2013
Introduced in Academic Year (AY) 2011, the Lee Foundation award aims to promote a positive culture of professionalism among medical students by recognising and encouraging professional conduct, projects and activities. Five awards are presented to one student from each year of the MBBS course for having demonstrated exemplary professional conduct. To nominate for AY2013/14, please click here.
Lee Foundation Professionalism Award AY2012/13 Recipients
Davin Ryanputra (Medicine, Year 1)
Davin was the Year 1 Class Representative in Year 1. He gave importance to fulfilling his responsibility and provided many examples of this: in facilitating communication between his peers and the Dean’s office; in launching a programme on ‘health enhancement’ and enlisting support for it; and in taking responsibility for a mistake he had made. It was his sincerity and sense of responsibility that the Nominating Committee considered him as one of the awardee.
Joshua Tan Kuan (Medicine, Year 2)
Joshua displays a genuine care for people in need of help. He had initiated a ‘Longitudinal Patient Experience’ pilot programme to give back to construction workers—and other immigrant workers—what they gave to society and to offer support to them in recognition of their vulnerability and social disadvantage. As well as conducting the programme he had set up informational events for other medical students to learn about these people so as to promote empathy for their plight.
Kenneth Choo Wei Qiang (Medicine, Year 2)
Kenneth is enthusiastic and passionate about addressing equity issues for people diagnosed with mental conditions. He had initiated a research project that addresses discrimination against people diagnosed with depression. The long-term aim of the project is to promote ways in which clinicians and caregivers could safeguard the interests of these people.
Wong Neng Wei (Medicine, Year 3)
Neng Wei had organised ‘Camp Simba’ as a support activity for children of sufferers of cancer. He and his fellow organisers had considered equity issues carefully, for example: in adopting a policy for selection of children that did not discriminate between children from financially advantaged and financially disadvantaged families in that all children are affected emotionally by diagnosis of cancer in their parents. Neng Wei was the Year 3 class representative and the Nominating Committee found that he had provided invaluable support to both Dean’s office staff and his peers in this role.
Ong Hui Li Julia (Medicine, Year 5)
Julia had proved herself to be a supportive and compassionate medical student: as was exemplified by her willingness to change Clinical Groups to support a fellow student who was experiencing personal difficulties. Furthermore, Julia had provided practical assistance with other Clinical Groups that were experiencing difficulties in their composition.
She nominated two qualities of professionalism as ‘to be good at what you do; and to be happy doing it’ and expanded on these in terms of both professional competence and support for patients in a psychological and social sense. The Committee found she demonstrated those qualities in interview; as well as open-mindedness to learning from others—whatever their position in the medical hierarchy.
