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Sunday February 18, 6:17 PMHospitals to provide better patient care with recruitment of more nursesHospitals are looking forward to recruiting more nurses, following the announcement of an additional 4,500 nurses to the workforce, to cater to healthcare needs.Over the next 5 years, Tan Tock Seng Hospital will boost its numbers by 600, to cope with existing services, while Alexandra Hospital expects more than 400 nurses to join its fold, to meet future demands. Staff nurses Rosaline Yeo and Sashikala, have always wanted to spend more time with their patients; to improve communication and monitor their conditions better. At the moment, that is not always possible, with the tight staff strength. However with the hospital's plans to recruit more nurses, they might just get their wish. Staff Nurse, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Sashikala Ragunathan said, “If there is more nurses coming in, we will be able to closely observe our patients more which is very important in our line. For example, in Tan Tock Seng Hospital, we do categorise patients who are high-risk for fall and, when we have more staff, we are able to observe these patients so that their needs are more attended to more frequently." Staff Nurse, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Rosaline Yeo added, “Currently we are actually more focussed on the patients’ conditions. If there are more nurses coming in, I'm sure that it will benefit more for the patients. We will be able to look into other areas, for example, we'll be able to educate the patients. For example for patient who is having a ‘diabetic foot’, other than wound dressing, we will actually be able to focus more on their on their lifestyle, diet-wise.” The hospital also plans to hire local nurses first, before recruiting those from abroad such as from China, the Phillippines, Myanmar and India. Currently 2 out of every 10 of its nurses are from these countries. For now, it will look to the Nanyang and Ngee Ann Polytechnics, which churn out about 1,000 nursing students every year, and the Institute of Technical Education or ITE, hich produces about 400 yearly. Tan Tock Seng Hospital currently has about 1,700 nurses in its fold, which means that for every 1 one nurse, there are 6 patients to care for. With the number of nurses it plans to recruit over the next 5 years, the hospital hopes that this ratio can be improved to 1 nurse for every 4 patients. With the boost in the number of nurses, more training and upgrading opportunities can be expected. Deputy Director, Nursing Service, Tan Tock Seng Hospital, Yong Keng Kwang said, "With more nurses on the wards, we are able to allocate more time for training for these nurses. As the population ages, we expect patients with more complex conditions and we continuously need to upgrade our nurses; so this aspect will benefit the nurses tremendously." When all 600 nurses are recruited at the end of five years, Tan Tock Seng Hospital says that it will need more than $20 million a year to maintain the pool. Meanwhile, Alexandra Hospital says it will recruit more than 400 nurses over the next 5 years - to cope with services when the new AH@Yishun opens in 2009. Alexanda Hospital now has some 569 nurses, tending to 397 beds, but capacity will be increased to 550 beds when it moves to Yishun. - CNA/fz |
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