Tsao Foundation, a pioneer in community-based primary healthcare that promotes successful ageing and enables ageing in place has sealed an agreement with Ngee Ann Polytechnic to deliver Singapore’s first Specialist Diploma in Community Gerontology Nursing with the aim of providing quality healthcare to elders living at home.
This is an important step in capacity building to meet the needs of a rapidly ageing population, especially since more elders live at home within the community rather than in an institution, but most professional training for nurses is hospital-based and what is encountered in the elder’s home and in the community is a far cry from within the controlled environment of a hospital or a nursing home. This one-year diploma is in line with the government’s concerted efforts to improve the quality and accessibility of community-based healthcare to all elderly Singaporeans.
The Specialist Diploma in Community Gerontology Nursing (SDCGN) consists of 210 classroom hours, 160 practicum hours and 30 hours of on-the-job training (OJT) aimed at equipping Registered Nurses with the necessary knowledge and skills set required for a Community Gerontology Nurse to serve in the community context.
Critically, this is a practitioner-to-practitioner training course that imparts the skills and values of person-centred care in a fluid environment. It includes necessary T-shape skills enhancement to enable Registered Nurses to function in a multi-disciplinary team to support community care for elders with emphasis on training that includes rehabilitation, psycho-social care, policy, care management, and more.
“This is the first time a community practitioner collaborates with a tertiary institution with an aim to empower practicing state-registered nurses to serve the rising number of community-dwelling elders in Singapore. Drawing upon more than two decades of expertise in community-based eldercare accumulated at the Tsao Foundation’s Hua Mei Centre for Successful Ageing and Ngee Ann Polytechnic’s expertise in tertiary training, this new programme equips participants with the practical skills and pedagogical knowledge to provide cutting edge primary healthcare that is comprehensive, integrated and person-centred as to improve health outcomes over the life-course,” says Ms Fong Yoke Hiong, Assistant Director of Nursing, Tsao Foundation.
Dr Phang Chiew Hun, Director of the School of Health Sciences at Ngee Ann Polytechnic, adds: “To meet the rising needs of our eldercare sector, we need to enhance the level of care for the elderly and deepen the training of nurses. We are happy to contribute to this sector by partnering Tsao Foundation to launch the Specialist Diploma in Community Gerontology Nursing. It will enable us to build up a talent pool of registered nurses with the knowledge and skills to provide holistic and integrated care for the elderly, particularly in community healthcare settings.”
The first intake of the Specialist Diploma in Community Gerontology Nursing will commence in April 2017.
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