Press Releases
Ministry of Health appoints new Chief Nursing Officer
30 August 2007
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30 Aug 2007
With effect from 1 Sep 2007, Ms Pauline Tan will succeed Ms Ang Beng Choo as the new Chief Nursing Officer (CNO) to lead the nursing profession in Singapore. Ms Pauline Tan will also assume the position of Registrar of the Singapore Nursing Board.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) deeply appreciates the contributions of Ms Ang Beng Choo. In her six-year tenure as CNO, Ms Ang has played a key role in formulating major nursing policies at the national level. She formalized the career structure for Registered Nurses in the clinical, education and administration tracks. She also played a key role in setting up the first local Bachelor of Science (Nursing) programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS) in 2006 as well as the NUS Master of Nursing programme in 2003. The Nurses and Midwives Act was amended under her tenure, which provided for the certification of Advanced Practice Nurses (APN). She was concurrently the Registrar of the Singapore Nursing Board. Ms Ang will assume a new appointment as Director, Health Service Research (Nursing) in the Ministry of Health. In addition, she was recently appointed Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, NUS.
Ms Pauline Tan is currently the Director of Nursing at the Institute of Mental Health and had held previous positions as Director, Operations in Thomson Medical Centre and Manager Operations in Raffles Medical Group. She rose from the ranks of a nurse to become Assistant Director Nursing, overseeing the operating theatres, wards and nursing affairs in Tan Tock Seng Hospital. Ms Tan subsequently moved to administrative positions in Ang Mo Kio Community Hospital and the private sector.
On her priorities as the new CNO, Ms Pauline Tan said, “My challenge is to raise the profile and contribution of nursing in Singapore. My aim is to forge greater intersectoral synergy and collaboration in nursing through closer 'public-private', 'hospital-community' and 'service-education' partnerships. This requires new thinking and approaches. In tandem, nursing standards, practice, education and research will be continually elevated to benefit our patients and to push the frontiers of medical excellence for Singapore.”
The Ministry is pleased to welcome Ms Pauline Tan as the new Chief Nursing Officer.