Paediatrics Education Enablers

“The future of medicine depends not only on what we know, but on how we teach, inspire, and prepare those who will come after us.”

The Paediatrics Academic Clinical Programme (Paeds ACP) advances education excellence by nurturing clinicians as capable and confident clinician educators. Through structured initiatives such as the Clinician Educator Faculty Development Grant Call, established in honour of Professor Phua Kong Boo, Paeds ACP strengthens faculty capability, teaching innovation, and assessment practices, including harmonised training on Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) that enhances the fairness and reliability of workplace‑based assessments. By investing upstream in educator development, Paeds ACP supports better care through safe and compassionate practice, contributes to better health by building a resilient and competent healthcare workforce, and delivers better value through sustainable, high‑impact education—ensuring that educational excellence today translates into safer care, stronger workforce capability, and lasting system‑wide impact for the future.

At the heart of Paediatrics ACP’s commitment to educational excellence is a series of Faculty Development (Education) Advance Workshops that strengthen teaching, assessment, and feedback in everyday clinical practice. By equipping healthcare professionals with effective coaching and evaluation skills, these workshops play a vital role in shaping how future generations of clinicians are trained—and ultimately, how children receive care. 

A recent success story illustrates this impact: a workshop participant applied structured coaching and feedback techniques during ward supervision and bedside assessments, leading to more open dialogue, stronger learner engagement, and increased confidence within the clinical team. These everyday practices directly influence how learners grow into competent, reflective practitioners who are better prepared to care for children and families. 

Beyond individual learning, the workshops help to standardise assessment and evaluation across faculty. Through shared frameworks, clear performance criteria, and consistent feedback approaches, educators develop a unified understanding of clinical competence. This ensures fairer, more reliable assessments and supports the development of capable, confident healthcare professionals. 

Together, these initiatives go beyond teaching—they help shape the future of child health by nurturing a workforce that is skilled, collaborative, and responsive to the needs of children and families. By strengthening how educators teach, assess, and support learners today, Paediatrics ACP is building a stronger foundation for better paediatric care tomorrow.

The Paediatric Medicine Residency Programme – Faculty Development Workshops (EPA Sessions) strengthen governance while advancing MOH’s three desired states by embedding clarity, consistency, and accountability into paediatric training. Through the development of a shared mental model for Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), these workshops equip faculty with a common language for supervision and assessment, reducing unwarranted variation in decisions and supporting safe, reliable care within a community-empowered population health system. 

A key strength of this initiative lies in its ability to translate policy into practice. By integrating structured EPA frameworks into routine clinical supervision, the workshops align daily teaching and assessment practices with system-level goals. Standardised assessment tools, faculty calibration, and data-informed decision-making reinforce robust governance—ensuring that judgements are transparent, auditable, and consistently applied. This reflects the principles of a digital Academic Medical Centre, where quality improvement is continuous and evidence driven. 

The workshops are particularly relevant in achieving the three desired states. They support better health outcomes by strengthening the capability of clinicians to deliver high-quality, consistent paediatric care. They contribute to a better care experience by promoting psychologically safe environments for learning, open feedback, and effective supervision—benefitting both learners and patients. At the same time, they enable better value by improving the reliability of assessments, enhancing faculty efficiency, and reducing duplication or variability in training processes. 

Impact is demonstrated through clear governance measures, including strong faculty participation, improved consistency in assessment practices, positive participant feedback, and greater confidence in high-stakes decisions such as progression and fitness to practise. By aligning people, processes, and standards, these workshops create a coherent and trustworthy training ecosystem. 

Ultimately, this initiative goes beyond faculty development—it shapes a future-ready paediatric workforce. By strengthening how educators teach, supervise, and assess today, the programme builds a foundation for a more consistent, accountable, and high-performing paediatric training system that safeguards both learner development and child health outcomes for the future.

The Feedback as a Continuum and Compass for Faculty and Learners workshop is led by experienced clinician educators and brings together doctors, nurses, and allied health professionals to strengthen feedback, coaching, and reflective supervision in real clinical settings. Designed to build both confidence and capability, the workshop equips faculty with practical strategies they can apply immediately in their day-to-day practice.

Participant feedback highlights both strong engagement and meaningful impact. Attendees consistently describe the sessions as clear, relevant, well-paced, and conducted in a supportive environment that encourages open discussion. Many valued the highly interactive format—particularly role play, realistic case scenarios, and opportunities to practise structured feedback conversations using models such as R2C2. One participant shared, “This workshop reminded me that feedback is not about correction, but about connection—helping others grow with clarity, respect, and purpose.”

A key outcome is the adoption of structured approaches to feedback. Participants reported gaining new skills in building rapport, exploring learners’ reactions, and co-creating actionable plans. As one participant noted, “I now focus on listening first, building rapport, and guiding learners to reflect and set their own goals.” Others highlighted the value of learning a common framework: “The R2C2 model gave me a clear structure to make my feedback more consistent and meaningful.”

Importantly, participants described immediate application of these skills in clinical practice—from ward rounds and bedside teaching to student supervision and performance discussions. Many shared increased confidence in holding constructive, solution-focused conversations, even in challenging situations. The workshop also fosters a shared language and approach across professions, supporting more consistent and fair feedback practices within the learning environment.

By running this programme regularly and continuously learning from participant feedback, Paediatrics ACP ensures that education translates into real improvement. The result is stronger teamwork, more effective learning experiences, and a culture of feedback that supports both professional growth and better care for children and families.

The Paediatric Communication Skills Course stands as a cornerstone of junior doctor training within the Paediatrics Academic Clinical Programme (Paeds ACP), reflecting the belief that exceptional paediatric care begins with meaningful, human‑centred communication. Aligned with MOHH requirements and purposefully designed for paediatric practice, the course immerses junior doctors in authentic clinical scenarios drawn from the most common patient and caregiver concerns identified by the Office of Patient Experience. Through guided, experiential learning in a safe and supportive environment, participants refine their ability to communicate with clarity, avoid medical jargon, and respond with empathy, professionalism, and respect.  More than a skills workshop, the course shapes how future paediatric clinicians engage with children and families—strengthening understanding, building trust, and fostering genuine partnership at every point of care. In doing so, it reinforces Paeds ACP’s commitment to safe, compassionate, and family‑centred care, where every conversation is an opportunity to heal, connect, and make a lasting difference in a child’s journey.

The Paediatrics Academic Clinical Programme (Paeds ACP) advances transformative medical education through strong alignment with SingHealth’s Academic Medicine domains of Care, Education, and Research. In Education, initiatives such as the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) programme equip educators with AI‑enabled tools and modern pedagogical strategies to deliver flexible, learner‑centred education embedded in real clinical practice. In Care, this digitally enabled approach strengthens workforce capability, communication, and clinical decision‑making—translating educational excellence into safer, higher‑quality, and more compassionate paediatric care. In Research, Paeds ACP fosters innovation through data‑informed education design and scholarly evaluation of teaching practices, contributing to continuous improvement and knowledge generation. Together, these integrated efforts create a scalable, future‑ready education ecosystem that supports SingHealth’s mission to advance care, education, and research in service of better child health outcomes.

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KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) is the only local hospital that hosts undergraduate paediatric clinical training for students from Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, and Duke NUS Medical School, serving as a unified national training platform. In response to growing undergraduate cohorts, the Paediatrics Academic Clinical Programme (Paeds ACP) has implemented coordinated, system level strategies to sustain education quality at scale. Through close collaboration with paediatric services, Paeds ACP optimises student deployment and clinic capacity to minimise disruption while maximising meaningful learning, supporting better care through safe and supervised clinical practice. Digital enablement via Google Classroom enhances information flow, organisation, and accessibility, strengthening a digital academic medical centre. Together, these approaches translate educational and operational innovation from ideas to impact, enabling a scalable, learner centred training ecosystem that prepares a future ready workforce to meet community and population health needs.

The establishment of the Education Council represents a key strategic enabler in advancing education excellence within the Paediatrics Academic Clinical Programme (Paeds ACP). It strengthens governance by providing clear leadership, alignment, and oversight across paediatric education and training, ensuring coherence with SingHealth’s academic, clinical, and workforce priorities.

With broad representation from paediatric services and subspecialties, the Council serves as a central coordinating body that integrates perspectives across disciplines, fostering a unified and system-wide approach to education. It enables robust quality assurance, standardised practices, and coordinated planning across the education continuum—from undergraduate through postgraduate training and faculty development.

Importantly, the Council drives continuous improvement through structured review processes, data-informed decision-making, and faculty engagement, ensuring that educational strategies remain responsive, relevant, and aligned with evolving healthcare needs. By strengthening accountability, promoting consistency, and embedding a culture of excellence, the Education Council plays a critical role in shaping a high-quality, future-ready paediatric education ecosystem that ultimately supports better outcomes for children and families.