Residents — or junior doctors undergoing graduate medical training — play an important role in the health of the community. However, their efforts should not be limited to transactional encounters where a disease or condition is being treated in a medical setting. Instead, Residents should see patients as they are — as people, each with their own lives, away from the hospital or clinic — and have a clear overview of the holistic medical care required by those they treat.
This is the social ethos the National Healthcare Group (NHG) aims to reinforce through its annual NHG Residency Community Engagement Day (CED).
BEHIND THE SOCIAL ETHOS
Community engagement is an important part of the residency training curriculum and NHG Resident Council work plan. Started in 2015, the inaugural CED featured some 125 Residents visiting various community homes and a senior activity centre under the Asian Women’s Welfare (AWWA) over two weekends. They spent time with 350 senior citizens in more than 200 flats in Geylang, Ang Mo Kio, and Thomson. Since then, CED has been part of the institution-level orientation for all new Residents to NHG Residency.
The CED organising teams have since partnered with organisations, such as the Community Chest, Dover Park Hospice, and Tsao Foundation, enabling social interactions between residents and different groups of beneficiaries, including patients, senior citizens, and migrant workers.
While beneficiary groups would generally be communities that doctors regularly encounter through their clinical work, groups are selected in discussion with the Designated Institutional Official (DIO), Associate Professor Faith Chia.
Following the CED events, Residents are encouraged to reflect on their takeaways. “This helps them consider what they have learnt from the interactions with the community, and how CED would change their perspectives — both personally and professionally — moving forward,” says Associate Professor Nicholas Chew, the DIO who initiated the first CED in 2015.
It is hoped that extended interactions between the Residents and the community outside clinical settings would lead the young doctors to develop an appreciation of the home and social environment the patients are part of. “We encourage the Residents to understand the patients’ routines, lifestyle, and everyday life, which may offer insight into their social situation and difficulties, not just their medical conditions,” says A/Prof Chia.
PLAYING A PART IN POPULATION HEALTH
In the wider scheme of things, Residents are also training to support Healthier SG, the national initiative by the Ministry of Health (MOH) designed to promote patient-centred preventive care. As part of a support ecosystem, Healthier SG encourages Singaporeans to build a trusted, lifelong relationship with their family doctor. He or she would work with them to develop a personalised health plan, and be the best partner to provide care and help shape health goals, including nationally-recommended health screenings and vaccinations.
Community engagement is a cornerstone of Healthier SG, and a platform where young doctors can build on their CED experiences. “This is so that, subsequently, the Residents’ understanding about the needs of different segments of society can grow, and they can be better positioned to understand health-seeking behaviour and the role community partners play in population care,” says A/Prof Chia.
MAKING THE DIFFERENCE
In-person CED activities resumed in 2023. Held in July at ACE The Place Community Centre in collaboration with North West Community Development Council, New Life Community Services, and Woodlands Health (WH), it involved about 100 seniors and over 120 Residents, programme directors, and administrators.
The half-day event saw the junior doctors participating in art, games, and singing sessions with the seniors. Residents also had a meal with the elderly folk. “The activities were organised to encourage physical, mental, and social health,” says Dr Muhammad Faisal Bin Johandi, Senior Resident (NHG Geriatric Residency Programme), who spearheaded 2023’s CED. “Our WH colleagues also shared healthy living tips with the seniors.”
At the event, A/Prof Chia urged Residents to continue fostering their interest in the community-at-large. “The future is to have health within the community. That’s where our patients are — they have stories, they have hopes, and they have obstacles behind them. It would be really good to have this sort of relationship with our patients,” she explained. “And this is the perfect opportunity for us to do that.”
For Dr Faisal, being a member of the organising committee offered him the chance to go the extra mile. “Sometimes in our busy work, we (doctors) forget that the person we are caring for is actually somebody with a story, a family, and his or her own anxieties,” he says.
In his address to new Residents at the July 2023 event, Dr Faisal said “With this CED, I wanted to bring this reality to you, especially at the start of your training. I hope that you will also learn something about yourself — that you can be a better person, better clinician, and better member of society.”
Beyond CED, Dr Faisal also developed a programme for Malay seniors, where activities are geared towards not just physical, mental, and spiritual health, but also interests. To that end, weekly Zumba classes, mental wellness talks, and healthy cooking classes have been put together in the hope that such engagement will help the seniors modify their lifestyles.
The efforts of Dr Faisal and others have created a ripple effect within NHG — a number of Residents have also taken their own initiative to create community engagement activities. For example, Orthopaedic Surgery Residents have arranged a visit to the Willing Hearts soup kitchen, launched a blood donation drive, and raised funds for children’s charity organisation Make-a-Wish Singapore. Meanwhile, Psychiatry Residents have planned excursions to the Asian Civilisations Museum for long-stay patients of the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), and to River Wonders for students of the autism-focused Pathlight School. Family Medicine Residents have coorganised the Migrant Worker Health Carnival with migrant worker-related organisations network My Brother SG.
These are positive signs that CED’s mission is being fulfilled as part of NHG’s commitment to give back to the community. As A/Prof Chia surmises, “At NHG Education, we believe that we are responsible for improving the health of our patients and communities through the education of our workforce, healthcare partners, patients, and caregivers.” LW
