SingHealth Academy is a collaborative effort on the part of all education-related activities of the constituents of Singapore Health Services.
As a major healthcare provider to the nation and beyond, it is inherent upon our vision and mission to ensure continuity of the education process. In addition, we need to signal a change in culture – the present generation, out of necessity, shall teach, mentor and train the succeeding generations such that they are prepared for challenges that lie ahead.
Excellence comes out of nurturing a culture of learning (education), questioning (research) and practice (clinical service) – not just in the parochial sense, but at a professional level. It takes a major mindset change and may even rock the very foundation of our traditional training precepts.
In this era of Evidence-Based Practice, one of the most effective strategies is to adapt and adopt team-based practices. Our colleagues in allied health, nursing and administration sectors are important partners of the Team in delivering healthcare. This Team will intuitively introduce checks and balances, which would benefit our patients in the increasingly complex healthcare environment. To date they have made impressive steps forward in their professional areas in education and we look forward to strengthening the bonds of the healthcare Team together.
For the medical fraternity, the US Residency Programme for the preparation of future practitioners is an exciting catalyst. Our British-based Specialist Training system has served us well. But we run the danger of being left in the backwater of healthcare education if we depend only on time-tested traditions. Instead, we must innovate and adapt the best practices from around the world to our advantage.
The Residency Programme educates specialists of the future in six competencies – medical knowledge, patient care, professionalism, interpersonal skills and communication, patient-based learning and improvement and systems-based practice. These tested criteria equip the practitioner with competencies deemed necessary for a specialist to practice professional skills.
I also believe a seventh competency – faculty development – is required. This process will empower the individual to be confident of his teaching competency, encompassing skills set required of leaders and administrators to better the service, learning and research environment for SingHealth. The focus shall be on imbibing in our young postgraduates a sense that they have the mission of passing on the education baton for healthcare.
As educators, we realise the scale of our operations is limited only by our imaginative collectivity. We should aspire to be a harvest ground for healthcare professionals in all the spheres that the Academy represents; producing individuals with a solid academic foundation, matched by professionalism in service delivery, research & education. After all, an Academy is a concept in which we accord our valued staff a breeding ground for the preparation of succeeding generations of professionals, confident of truly carrying to new heights our achievements as an Academic Medical Centre.
We must aspire to be a higher learning body…Nurturing Leaders of Tomorrow.
Associate Professor Colin Song
Group Director, Education, SingHealth;
Cluster Designated Official, SingHealth Residency Program;
Head, Dept of Plastic, Reconstructive & Aesthetic Surgery, Singapore General Hospital;
Director, Postgraduate Medical Institute, Singapore General Hospital
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