Over the years, the nursing role has broadened to keep pace with the care needs of the ageing population, a rise in the incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases, growing demand for healthcare services, and more complex medical and nursing care needs. NHG is committed to building up the nursing profession and providing career opportunities for motivated individuals with the passion to serve, and provide quality and safe care.
YOUR JOURNEY, OUR COMMITMENT
In line with NHG Group Nursing (GN)’s strategic thrusts to build a positive and nurturing practice environment that empowers and engages our people, the NHG Nursing Council harmonised the progression criteria across the cluster for both nurses and ancillary care staff to create fair opportunities for career advancement. To ensure objectivity in the assessment, the following broad principles for progression apply:
- • Years of relevant experience
- • Performance rating
- • Educational qualification
- • Parity (e.g. between full-time and part-time staff)
In March 2022, the details of the harmonisation exercise and career progression criteria were shared with all nursing supervisors and nurses to guide them in their conversations with staff on their roadmaps in Nursing.
NHG-CANS Nursing Leadership Dialogues were held to look at ‘Deciphering Leadership Issues of Our Times’.
NHG-CANS NURSING LEADERSHIP DIALOGUES
From February 2021 to May 2022, NHG GN and the Centre for Asian Nursing Studies (CANS) collaborated to organise a series of NHG-CANS Nursing Leadership Dialogues themed ‘Deciphering Leadership Issues of Our Times’. These dialogues sought to:
- a) Foster a culture of constructive and open dialogue
- b) Share best practices on challenging nursing leadership issues
- c) Serve as a cross-cluster platform/resource for NHG Nursing and CANS thought leadership
- d) Develop a Community of Practice (COP) for NHG Nursing leaders and nurses
The five virtual dialogues covered a range of topics, including performance management, staff favouritism, workplace bullying and harassment, intelligent disobedience, and Bed Baths: Dignified Intrusion.
NHG GROUP NURSING’S STANDARD ON-BOARDING PROGRAMME FOR NHG NURSES
In November 2021, NHG GN introduced the in-house NHG Standard On-boarding Programme for NHG Nurses. The key objectives of this programme are to introduce newly recruited NHG Nurses to GN’s strategic map and forge a strong NHG identity through GN initiatives and activities.
A total of 150 NHG nurses and healthcare assistants from all Institutions participated in the two pilot sessions via Zoom. The programme included e-learning and interactive engagement with Adjunct Associate Professor Yong Keng Kwang, Group Chief Nurse, NHG.
CONTINGENCY MANPOWER SUPPORT FOR COVID-19 COMMUNITY CARE FACILITIES
The resurgence of COVID-19 due to the Omicron variant in late 2021 and early 2022 resulted in the need for additional manpower to support patient care and ground operations in the community care sector. Between September 2021 and April 2022, some 203 registered nurses, nine enrolled nurses, and 47 healthcare assistants from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), National Skin Centre (NSC), and Woodlands Health (WH) responded to the call to manage geriatric COVID-19 patients placed in the Community Treatment Facility (CTF) at NTUC Tampines Nursing Home. Another four NSC nurses were deployed to support the CTF at Ren Ci Community Hospital.
NHG GN deferred the advanced diploma in nursing studies of more than 100 NHG nurses at Nanyang Polytechnic from September 2021 to January 2022 to support the surge of patients due to the COVID-19 Delta variant. Following that, NHG GN also planned and coordinated the return of 121 NHG nurses from their Advanced Diploma in Nursing studies to the respective NHG Institutions for two weeks in March 2022 to support another surge due to the COVID-19 Omicron variant.
