Towards an excellent health care system: Singapore nursing poised with 2020 vision

Abstract

Nurses from Singapore have a reputation as good clinicians, with very good English language skills that help them quickly adapt to work and life in many overseas countries, where their registration is readily accepted. Their reputation has been in part enhanced by the need for many of them to move overseas to pursue Bachelor Degrees and higher degrees in nursing because until 2006, the preparation for registration as a nurse was a Diploma at a Polytechnic. This meant that the majority of nurses left school at ‘O’ levels then with three years of Polytechnic education were eligible to register as a nurse. The net effect on career structure, the brain drain, research and educational developments has been significant on the profession. However recent initiatives have seen a rapid move towards developing an excellent health care system, supported by high standard biomedical research and translational clinical research initiatives, which will rapidly see Singapore develop as a health hub and Singapore nursing as a regional leader with an international reputation.