ACCELERATED PATHWAY TRAINS
GRADUATES FOR CAREERS IN NURSING
To enable more mid-career professionals to join the healthcare sector as nurses, the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies (NUS Nursing) is introducing an accelerated undergraduate nursing degree programme this July. The two-year Bachelor of Science (Nursing) programme is offered under the Ministry of Health and Workforce Singapore’s degree level Professional Conversion Programme for Registered Nurses.
Under the Programme, course fees of S$74,500 will be fully sponsored and trainees will receive training allowances of $2,170 to $2,520 per month throughout the two years of study. Upon graduation, they will be given a one-time Career Transition Bonus of $2,000. Employers will also receive an on-the-job training incentive of $18,000 for
every mid-career degree-trained Registered Nurse that they hire. Employers will also receive an on-the-job training incentive of $18,000 for every mid-career degree-trained Registered Nurse that they hire.
The two-year full-time programme is designed to meet accreditation standards of the Singapore Nursing Board. The rigorous and intense programme has 22 modules to equip students with nursing theory and concepts, as well as 1,320 hours of clinical experience in community and hospital settings to translate nursing knowledge into practice.
Said Professor Emily Ang, Head of NUS Nursing, “While the course runs for just two years, it is an intensive and thoroughly absorbing one. We have taken care to ensure students receive the same thorough grounding in the key nursing disciplines as the regular BSc (Nursing) programme, and are equipped to work competently in the wards and clinics alongside nursing and medical colleagues.”
Career Preview
About 100 participants attended the career preview to launch the new programme in February. At the preview, Dr Amy Khor, Senior Minister of State for Health, met nurses who had joined the profession from other occupations. Mr Lim Han Kee, 38, a Nurse Manager at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, was a Laboratory Technologist for two years before switching to nursing. It was a career he felt better suited him as it involved more interaction with people.
“Nursing has a structured career advancement pathway, good training opportunities and competitive salaries,” said Mr Lim.
Another mid-career crossover is Ms Ong Teng Teng, 42, a Year 2 student at NUS Nursing. She had been a flight stewardess with Singapore Airlines for 10 years,
stopped work to start a family and was inspired to join the nursing profession by the nurses who took care of her newborn son during his illness. She took a nursing course at the Institute of Technical Education in 2008, graduated with a Diploma in Nursing in 2013 and enrolled for her first degree at NUS Nursing in 2016.
“The diversity and breadth of nursing work now allow nurses to hone different expertise in different specialisations. With a degree specialisation, more mid-career professionals will be attracted to nursing,” she said.
Thirteen years ago, Dr Shefaly Shorey was a school teacher. The assistant professor at NUS Nursing decided on a career in nursing after being touched by the care her terminally ill grandmother-in-law received from nurses.