Pre-conference Workshops

The Singapore Medical Humanities Conference 2026 will feature a series of half-day Pre-Conference Workshops on 21 October 2026, open to all main registered conference participants.

Please note that a fee of SGD 80 applies for each pre-conference workshop. As places are limited, submission of interest does not guarantee a slot. Successful applicants will be notified via email, and payment will only be required upon confirmation.

For more information on pre-conference workshop registration, click here.

Compassion In Medicine—Meeting Suffering With Kindness For Ourselves And Our Patients

[Session 1]

Date: 21 October 2026, Wednesday | Time: 09:00 - 12:00 | Venue: Academia Room, L1-S1

Speakers: Dr Tanya Tierney & Dr Virginia Lien

How can we care for others effectively without losing ourselves? Join us for a 3-hour workshop to cultivate compassion and self-compassion for healthcare professionals in caring roles. Understand how the practice of mindfulness, compassion and self-compassion can mitigate empathy-fatigue, and transform our caring for others into an experience of satisfaction and flourishing. This workshop is an introduction to —Flourishing in Medicine: which addresses the practical well-being of the clinician and healthcare team, with the intention of improving the quality of care and quality of caring for patients and their families.

Building New Bridges: New Connections And Innovations In Health Humanities Education In Singapore

[Session 2]

Date: 21 October 2026, Wednesday | Time: 09:00 - 12:00 | Venue: Academia Room, L1-S3

Speakers: Assoc Prof Nicola Ngiam & Assoc Prof Michael Dunn

In global terms, education in the health humanities in Singapore is in its infancy. But, despite this, pockets of educational excellence and innovations in instructional design are surfacing across the local medical schools and other health professional training schools. Other national collaborative exchanges between likeminded educators, health practitioners, artistic practitioners and others are also emerging and fostering new ideas and ways of thinking about humanities education. There is value in sharing ideas for how health humanities education in health professional training should evolve. Currently, educators and practitioners operate largely in silos, and are developing initiatives that reflect institutional priorities or that reflect their own training, expertise, or skillset. In this workshop, we will adopt a whole-of-island approach to bring together stakeholders interested in delivering health humanities education to health professionals and students. The aim is to share experiences and innovate at the intersection between the humanities and healthcare. The aim of this workshop is to generate learning experiences that link learning outcomes to the practice of healthcare and that are feasible in the local context.

Holding Space: Trauma-Informed Psychological Debriefing in Healthcare

[Session 3]

Date: 21 October 2026, Wednesday | Time: 09:00 - 12:00 | Venue: Academia Room, L1-S4

Speakers: Assoc Prof Shirlyn Neo Hui Shan, Ms Ng Min Yu & Mr Daniel Ho

This session introduces Trauma-Informed Care (TIC) as a guiding framework for facilitating psychological debriefs that are safe, ethical, and responsive to diverse staff needs. Moving beyond prescriptive models, the session reframes debriefing as a relational, reflective, and reflexive practice, grounded in the principles of empowerment, safety, trust, cultural humility, choice, and collaboration. This underscores the recognition of “the self of the clinician” in providing safe and effective care without compromising staff well-being and exacerbating staff burnout due to emotional demands that arise as part of the work. Drawing from clinical practice within ICU settings, participants will gain insight into how TIC can shape both the process and ethos of debriefing, creating spaces that support meaning-making, emotional processing, and team cohesion.