Return-To-Nursing Training Scheme

04 Sep 2000

Introduction

The Ministry of Health is attracting non-practising nurses to return to work as part of the overall strategy to ease the shortage of nurses in the various healthcare institutions. The Ministry is also introducing a "Return-To-Nursing" Training Scheme to update the nursing skills of these non-practising nurses before they return to work.

Background

The Ministry of Health conducted a survey among 2,000 non-practising nurses in 1999 to look at the need of a re-training scheme to attract nurses who are interested to return to the nursing workforce. This is in line with the national policy to re-train workers to update their skills and knowledge in order to enhance their lifelong employability. 25% of these nurses were interested to return to nursing. Amongst them, 18% had not practised for more than 10 years while the rest had stopped nursing practise for between 3 to 10 years. The majority of those interested in returning to nursing work opted for part-time or full-time regular hours employment.

Prospective employers in the healthcare establishments are supportive of the scheme. NTUC has also agreed to provide training subsidies and allowances to nurses who attend the re-training course under its Skills Redevelopment Programme (please see Annex A).

"Return-To-Nursing" Training Scheme

The competent practice of nursing requires nurses to constantly update their knowledge and skills to keep up with advances in medical science and technology. There is, therefore, a need to upgrade the competency of non-practising nurses before they return to nursing.

The "Return-To-Nursing" training scheme will be piloted in 3 healthcare institutions in August. These institutions are the Changi General Hospital, KK Women's & Children's Hospital and National Heart Centre. The training course consists of theory and clinical attachment ranging from 2 to 3 months. Classes are held from 8.00 am to 4.30pm from Monday to Friday. This training aims to ensure that nurses acquire the compulsory core competencies, and also the specialty competencies determined by the respective institution. The nurses will receive a Certificate of Attendance, issued by the respective institution when they complete the training course.

An initial group of 15 nurses would be re-trained under this pilot programme. Given the incentives of a monetary allowance for attending the training programme, and the flexible working hours that the institutions are offering, more nurses are expected to sign up for the course.

Non-practising nurses who are interested in the programme can contact Miss Chia Su Lin at the Ministry of Health at Tel No. 3259102.