The development of Singapore nursing education system – challenges, opportunities and implications

Abstract

Background Singapore's nursing services and education need to keep pace with the ever‐changing healthcare landscape and international trends in nursing capability development. Aims To examine the development of Singapore's nursing education and to propose recommendations for its future development. Sources of Evidence This discussion paper examined journal articles, books and grey literature that documented the development of nursing education in Singapore. Discussion There are three main challenges and opportunities for nursing education in Singapore: (1) the establishment of registered nurse preparatory education at the baccalaureate level, (2) the expansion of master's programmes for clinical specialization and (3) the need to increase nursing faculties through the growth of doctoral education. Conclusion Singapore's nursing education has made a significant progress in its development since the 1990s. To advance nursing education, individual nurses, local nursing associations and academic institutions should be empowered to develop its own clinical, education and research capabilities to meet future healthcare challenges. Implications for Nursing Policy Nurses should assume greater roles in determining their own professional and educational developments. Strategies to advance Singapore's nursing education include establishing a national body for regulating continuing nursing education and specialties certification, creating a greater diversity in academic offerings beyond baccalaureate programmes and building local nursing clinical and research capabilities within universities.

Nursing teamwork in general ward settings: A mixed‐methods exploratory study among enrolled and registered nurses

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Self‐compassion and nursing competency among Japanese psychiatric nurses

“…Thus, it focuses on performance and knowledge. Recently, several systematic reviews have reported a variety of educational methods and their effects on improving nursing competency 3–5 . These reviews have identified factors that influence nursing competency, such as years of nursing experience 6,7 and educational level 6 .…”

Nursing and Midwifery Education: Historical Perspectives

“…Post-Nightingale models, there were calls for formalization of nursing education around the world (Ousey 2011). As a result, many nursing education systems, such as those in Australia and Singapore, resembled their British colonial origins, historically public hospital-based apprenticeship programs (Goh et al 2019). The system of training nurses on-the-job, predominant throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, was based on students exchanging their labor for nursing instruction (Grehan 2017).…”

“…Higher education and specialization in nursing, such as at master's level, is seen as a strategy for internationalization and professionalization of nursing, and underpins provision of quality healthcare. This is particularly so in less educationally developed countries such as Jordan (Zahran et al 2012) and China (Zhang et al 2019), as well as in Singapore (Goh et al 2019) and Eastern Europe (Wong et al 2015). Such strategies are underpinned by reports of better patient outcomes associated with more educated nurses (Aiken et al 2011), however, remain contextdriven.…”