Amy Ong Su Ting, Assistant Director, Nursing, National Cancer Centre Singapore

Amy Ong is Assistant Director, Nursing, at the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS). Her role includes leading nursing initiatives that focus on quality, patient safety, healthcare improvement and innovation. She also supports and mentors fellow nurses.

“The healthcare landscape is very fluid and ever-changing, and we always put patients at the heart of all we do. This deeply motivates me to strive to improve patient outcomes, as well as look at ways we can advance nursing and healthcare as a whole,” she said. “My patients also motivate me to do better and be a champion for Target Zero Harm, eliminating preventable harm and delivering the safest care possible.”

Amy’s upskilling journey started early in her career. As a new nurse, she enrolled in an advanced diploma course, then completed her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees, followed by a Graduate Diploma in Wound Ostomy and Continence Practice. She recently received a Graduate Certificate in Patient Safety & Healthcare Quality under the Wee Foundation Scholarship (Leadership). 

“As the Quality & Safety Lead in NCCS Nursing, this programme has broadened my understanding of patient safety principles and equipped me with practical strategies to enhance care delivery.”

Amy credits the strong support system she has at work, home and school that has allowed her to focus on her studies and develop her nursing skills. Colleagues and supervisors were understanding; they accommodated her class schedule, and offered advice and encouragement. At home, her husband and mother helped to look after her two children and manage the household.

“Nursing work can be very fast-paced and requires critical-thinking skills. It’s very important to upskill, keep an open mind, accept feedback, and get exposure in various nursing disciplines. Only with exposure would you be able to really know what you want to specialise in, and set personal goals in your nursing career,” she said.

Tan Il Fan, Advanced Practice Nurse & Senior Nurse Clinician, National Neuroscience Institute

Advanced Practice Nurse Tan Il Fan is the nursing education lead at the National Neuroscience Institute (NNI) and works in neurology, with a specific interest in stroke care. Il Fan manages all training and staff development matters, including developing training roadmaps, managing clinical attachments at NNI for students and nurses from other hospitals, as well as clinical and bedside teaching, all alongside her clinical work.

She spends about 20 per cent of her time teaching the Master of Nursing programme at the National University of Singapore (NUS) as the lead on the neuroscience module, which includes providing expert opinion, curriculum planning, setting examination questions, and being an examiner. She is also a sub-committee member in the National Collaborative Practitioner Prescribing programme, which trains and examines nurses and pharmacists on prescribing medications.

As NNI does not have its own inpatient services, its nurses rotate to different hospitals such as Singapore General Hospital (SGH) or Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), offering consultations and working to standardise neuroscience nursing care across institutions. Much of the team’s time is spent on strategic planning for programme improvements, identifying service and practice gaps, proposing changes to enhance patient safety, and reducing risk to ensure quality of care.

A firm believer in multidisciplinary teamwork, Il Fan not only provides specialist training for nurses in different hospitals, but also serves as a reference point for doctors, allied health professionals, and ancillary staff in delivering comprehensive neuroscience care. One example is Il Fan’s involvement at the new Woodlands Health, where she helps to develop neurology and neurosurgery services while providing neuroscience training for nurses.

Having experienced the challenges of juggling studies and clinical work in the past, Il Fan empathises with her students and junior nurses. She is passionate about guiding them through their learning journey, passing on what she has learnt to help make it less stressful for them.

In NNI, nurse educators like Il Fan retain active clinical work, which complements her role as an educator perfectly. She can tailor her lessons to bridge theory to clinical application by including the latest clinical evidence-based practice to benefit students.

Leading by example, Il Fan continually pursues educational development through courses and workshops to ensure adaptability and innovation in her teaching approach. Recently, she completed a short course on Technology Enhanced Learning, allowing her more creativity to apply technology and gamification into her teaching.

Having had opportunities to experience research, education and clinical work, Il Fan has found her passion — education. Her advice for nurses in the early stages of their career is to identify which career pathway best suits them so that they can make their preference known to their supervisors and work towards it. “Nursing is a long journey and a career that offers a variety of fields that you may find interesting, so you must do what you enjoy,” she said.

Jason Mok You Cheng, Senior Staff Nurse, Singapore National Eye Centre

2024 marks Senior Staff Nurse Jason Mok’s 14th year as a nurse. After joining SingHealth as an enrolled nurse in 2010, Jason harboured dreams of becoming a registered nurse, but the missing piece was the academic qualification he needed to be admitted into a diploma programme.

Despite that, Jason’s dedication and clinical skills quickly became apparent. While at the Singapore National Eye Centre (SNEC), he seized the opportunity to advance through a specially designed course for enrolled nurses. This course, which recognised clinical experience over academic qualifications, allowed selected candidates to attend a threemonth bridging programme to qualify for the diploma course. This was a pivotal moment in Jason’s career, enabling him to qualify for a diploma course and, thereafter, a series of academic achievements.

After completing his Diploma in Nursing, he pursued a nursing undergraduate degree from King’s College London, armed with a scholarship by Ngee Ann Academy. His efforts paid off when he graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing with first-class honours. He pressed on in his educational pursuits and attained an Advanced Diploma in Peri-anaesthesia. Currently, he is enhancing his expertise by studying for a Master of Advanced Practice (Clinical Leadership).

Jason’s academic achievements have elevated his professional capabilities. He is now exploring career pathways in innovation, leadership and quality improvement — areas in which his advanced education will be instrumental. His keen interest in leveraging technology and innovation to solve problems and improve efficiency reflects his forward-thinking approach to nursing. “With the ease of access to technology and information, solutions can come from various ways as long as you have an idea and the ability to innovate,” he noted.

Jason’s journey is not just a personal triumph but also an inspiration to other nurses. He advises young nurses to start their learning journey early, capitalising on the momentum from their initial studies to avoid the difficulties of returning to education later.

Rohaida Rahmat, Advanced Practice Nurse & Nurse Clinician, National Neuroscience Institute

Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) Rohaida Rahmat is cross-trained in both neurology and neurosurgery, and is the research lead for nursing. Based at NNI on the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) campus for neurology services, and with her subspecialty in stroke care, she also sees patients with other neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease, dementia, and headache in dedicated APNled clinics. In addition, she covers general neurosurgery APN clinic services on the Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) campus.

Rohaida feels that both the clinical and research aspects of her job are equally important. Having an active clinical load also enables her to channel and recruit patients for her research studies.

Armed with a nursing diploma from Nanyang Polytechnic, Rohaida spent about a year settling into her profession before deciding to enrol for a part-time Bachelor’s degree in nursing. Juggling shift-work with the demands of the course was hectic, but she was in good company as several of her colleagues were taking the same course, and having a group of friends on the journey made things easier.

Four years into her career found her working in a neurology ward. When she expressed her interest in learning more about neuroscience to her supervisors, she was able to take up an Advanced Diploma in Neuroscience Nursing with their support. “Returning to the ward as a neuroscience-trained nurse, I had a better understanding of neuroscience conditions and was equipped with better skills. I was in a better position to guide my junior colleagues,” she said.

Rohaida completed a two-year secondment to the Stroke Services Improvement (SSI) team, under the directorship of the Ministry of Health (MOH), helping to develop initiatives and strategies to improve stroke care across the nation, such as running national public awareness campaigns and facilitating clinical quality improvement measures.

Rohaida has two Master’s degrees, one in clinical leadership and another in adult health nursing, which enable her to practise as an APN. “The Master’s in Clinical Leadership was very helpful when I was doing my stint in MOH as it gave me a better understanding of the entire operational management system within healthcare,” she said.

During her secondment to SSI, MOH, she was exposed to academic writing for the first time, and it kick-started her interest in research. She is currently doing her Graduate Certificate in Health Services Innovation at Duke-NUS Medical School, under the Wee Foundation Scholarship, which, she believes, strongly complements her research work. “With dedicated modules for health services research, the programme has increased my understanding of the research process and allowed me to apply this to my own practice as a research lead.”

The studies through the years have played a crucial part in developing Rohaida’s clinical reasoning, communication and management skills, and her work as a research lead. “Every qualification attained has shaped me into my current role as an APN in Neuroscience, which allows me to make a difference to patients both at an individual and system level,” said Rohaida.

Cheah Le Le, Assistant Director, Nursing (Education), Alice Lee Institute of Advanced Nursing, Singapore General Hospital

As an educator and administrator at the Alice Lee Institute of Advanced Nursing (IAN), Assistant Director Cheah Le Le is responsible both for the delivery of training courses as well as programme planning. Established in February 1997, IAN was the first Institute of Advanced Nursing to be established in a hospital in Singapore. IAN galvanises the resources, expertise and infrastructure required to support the pursuit of academic and clinical skills training excellence. It has since acquired a strong reputation for being the leading provider of nursing education for nurses here and beyond.

Le Le is also an adjunct assistant professor at the Singapore Institute of Technology / University of Glasgow (UoG). Among the modules she teaches is a foundational elective on teaching, learning and assessment that allows students to explore whether the educator pathway is the right one for them.

Interestingly, Le Le never set out to be an educator. Instead, her work as an educator is grounded in her many years as a clinical nurse where she observed that protocols and processes being taught to nurses could be improved. Also, having gone through many training courses herself, she developed an interest in pedagogy. Education was an effective path to disseminating nursing knowledge, and she felt that seeing theory translated to reality by her students would be incredibly impactful.

This led her to pursue postgraduate studies in higher education. “That’s when the whole world of education really opened up for me and piqued my interest in teaching,” she said. She is particularly glad when she sees learners having a ‘light bulb’ moment, whether in class or at a patient’s bedside. “That’s when you feel really gratified that you have actually helped someone.”

Le Le recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Healthcare Management. The exposure to different teaching and learning activities has inspired her, and she hopes to use what she has learnt to help her students enjoy their lessons better, especially adult learners who have not been in a classroom for years.

As a mother of two, Le Le feels fortunate that, throughout her 30-year career, she has had understanding supervisors who supported her pursuit of continuing education. Other than a full-time Advanced Diploma course in critical care, all her other courses were completed part-time while working full-time, and all were fully funded by Singapore General Hospital (SGH).

Many years and courses later, Le Le is still as enthusiastic about learning. She advocates keeping an open mind and always being willing to learn, “as we may not know what we do not know until we start diving into a topic”.

“I abide by the principle of live to learn and learn to live. We learn something every day, but we may not be aware of it. Once we develop this awareness, then we can really enrich ourselves,” she added.

Launched in 2024, the Integrated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) - Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) programme, offered by the Singapore Institute of Technology (SIT), was developed in collaboration with SingHealth to nurture highly trained specialist nurses and the next generation of nurses and leaders. The SIT Programme Leader, Associate Professor Elaine Siow (pictured below, bottom left), who is a nurse by training, shares more.

What drew you to nursing and nursing education?

I was drawn to nursing as I am passionate about caring for others. As a nurse, I am privileged to be given the opportunity to make a positive impact on others, and help them overcome difficulties during their vulnerable moments. I came to understand that the care provided to patients and families can directly influence their recovery.

This gave me a sense of purpose in my job as it is rewarding to be part of their recovery journey, and this is what motivates me to want to stay in this profession.

I was attracted by the diverse and broad-based topics covered in the nursing curriculum, from STEM-based topics to the humanities in subjects like psychology and sociology. During my training as a nurse, I developed a curiosity about various topics in nursing. My lecturers and professors also played a crucial role in my development. Their guidance and mentoring have been integral in shaping my journey as an educator. They are inspiring role models whom I hope to emulate in my nursing career.

Nursing offers a diverse range of career pathways, such as clinical nursing, education, research, leadership, and many others. I see nursing as a profession that allows me to adapt as my interests evolve, from being a clinical nurse to an educator and researcher.

I am pursuing a career in academia because I enjoy interacting with students and hope to inspire the generation of future nurses to provide effective patient care. Academia also enables me to be actively involved in research to contribute to the nursing profession by uncovering new discoveries and generating knowledge that can improve how we care for patients and families.

How does the BSN-MSN curriculum integrate academic learning and clinical residency?

The new integrated programme pathway will enable students to receive two degrees within a shorter period, compared to the current traditional pathway. The Term-In Term-Out approach enables students to engage in authentic learning and apply the skills learned in clinical practice. The MSN portion adopts a work-study framework that enables nurses to gain a deeper understanding of a specific discipline and develop advanced skills.

This programme offers four specialty areas: medical surgical nursing, high acuity care nursing, peri-operative nursing, and community care nursing. This diverse selection enables nurses to select an area of interest based on the needs of the healthcare institution.

Tell us more about your role as a programme leader.

The collaboration with SingHealth was valuable in allowing me to bridge the gap between academics and clinical colleagues during the BSN-MSN programme development.

Previously, I spearheaded the development of the SIT-UoG BSc in Nursing (Hons) curriculum by collaborating closely with both SIT and UoG nursing faculty. Through my leadership, we actively sought input from various nursing leaders and clinicians during the curriculum development process. This valuable experience has given me a better understanding of how to lead curriculum design and the amount of effort needed to create a new programme. These skill sets were useful in helping me plan and develop the new integrated BSN-MSN programme.

My current teaching role in the university keeps me up-to-date with advancements in teaching and learning. My teaching experience also helps inform the structure and content of the curriculum, in terms of the pedagogy approaches, assessment methods, and relevance of theoretical and clinical content. I aim to create meaningful experiences for the students and ensure that the programme aligns with learning objectives.

Find out more about the BSN-MSN programme at for.sg/sit-bsn-msn.

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