Ms Goh Soo Cheng is a Principal Medical Social Worker at SGH and Adjunct Associate Professor Yong Wei Sean

is a Senior Consultant Surgical Oncologist at NCCS. They come from different backgrounds and specialise in different fields. Yet, both are passionate about education at a time when the healthcare landscape is growing not only more integrated, but also more multidisciplinary.

“Patients require holistic, multidimensional care,” said Ms Goh. Drawing from her experience working in multidisciplinary teams to deliver care to help patients smoothly reintegrate into their communities, she noted, “We cannot practise in silos. In the best interest of patients, we have to come together despite our different backgrounds to learn from and with each other.”

This sentiment is echoed by Prof Yong. “Inter-professional learning is the way of the future,” he said. “As we move from doctor-centred models to patient-centric care, we will require different groups of professionals learning from other individual fields of expertise to deliver more enhanced and coordinated care.”

Part of the first batch of 37 pioneers in the Academic Medicine Education Institute (AM•EI) Fellows Programme launched in February 2013, Ms Goh and Prof Yong are now helping to build a community of like-minded passionate clinician educators.

By immersing themselves in inter-professional and inter-departmental teaching such as Residency training, they hope to nurture and sustain current and future generations of healthcare professionals

as well as raise the standards of healthcare education. Their efforts are aimed at achieving one ultimate target — better patient outcomes.

What they are trying to achieve is in line with the aims of the AM•EI, which are to encourage faculty development, educational programme development and education research across SingHealth. The all-inclusive institute for healthcare educators supports educators by offering a range of programmes and incentives, including personalised consultancy sessions and the award of an annual Education Innovation Grant.

Currently, more than 1,500 AM•EI members have the opportunity to participate in the institute’s wide range of faculty development programmes, which cater to all levels of educators. These and other efforts are focused on engaging healthcare professionals in inter-professional learning to better deliver multidisciplinary integrated care.

This blurring of traditional boundaries makes diversity a strength. Prof Yong shared, “The Fellows Programme has provided us with new perspectives and different innovative approaches to teaching. Our workshops make use of the strengths of people, both medical and non-medical, and also reach out to inter-professional participants. In the end, it is about how we can work together to achieve the shared objective of bettering care outcomes for patients.”

What Ms Goh and Prof Yong are hinting at is the concept known as ‘Generativity’. Put briefly, it involves tapping into what one person knows, and sharing it with another so that together they can better nurture the next generation.

In the year following the launch of the Fellows Programme, the pioneers have already made an impact. Several Pioneer Fellows have started teaching their fellow educators in the AM•EI Education Grand Rounds and other educational workshops. Others have taken on education-related research, exploring how they may improve teaching outcomes.

Ms Goh has found it an honour to teach beside colleagues from other backgrounds. “Our common passion for education is a bond that inspires us,” she said. “I am very keen to see how we can further collaborate to nurture the next generation of clinician educators.”

Prof Yong agreed and noted, “Generativity is important to ensure healthcare continuity. We will get old eventually and it is up to the current guard to pass the baton. We need to train the trainers so that they can better groom the next generation of healthcare professionals to achieve improved patient care outcomes.”

Generating Educational Excellence for Better Patient CareThe pioneers of the Academic Medicine Education Institute (AM•EI) Fellows Programme draw from their diverse backgrounds and knowledge to create a more integrated approach to Education.

SingHealth Education Special

Sometime during your career, you will find the need to pay it forward, to mentor your juniors just as you were mentored. To keep

people passionate, you need to share with them your passion. I find teaching to be a good way to do that.

As the philosopher Socrates once said, teaching is the highest form of learning – it forces you to understand your knowledge well enough to pass it on. Teaching can fulfil you and help you mature as an individual in a way that cannot be quantified.

My passion for peer teaching was realised through programmes such as CADENCE and the Student Internship Programme (SIP) Bootcamp.

CADENCE was started in April 2012 to help Internal Medicine Residents pass the notoriously difficult MRCP PACES exams. At the core of the CADENCE programme is the concept of ‘paying it forward’; Residents who have just passed the MRCP PACES exams are assigned the role of Resident-mentors to guide their compatriots through the exams.

We sought to change the angst-ridden, isolationist experience of the MRCP PACES exams into something we can move forward on together as a community. To date, more than 80 Residents

having benefitted from CADENCE and MRCP pass rates have significantly increased from 20-30% to 80%.

The other Resident-led initiative, the SIP Bootcamp, helps to bridge the gap between knowledge from books and actual clinical situations for medical students during their internship. Some 900 medical students have attended the Bootcamps and feedback has been extremely encouraging.

CADENCE and SIP Bootcamp have become self-sustaining initiatives, with each new batch of Residents taking the lead to pay it forward to the following batch. This is crucial for continuity and creates a self-sustaining culture of learning that will yield returns for medical education in the years to come.

I am a strong believer in the idea that your role defines what you do. If medical students can see themselves as future Resident-mentors, and Residents as future clinician educators or leaders, the mentoring instinct will become natural. Eventually, this will create a deeply embedded culture of teaching and learning.

Beyond passing examinations, peer teaching is also about an investment in our future as

healthcare professionals. We want to work with people we care about, and see them succeed. This will build a community of like-minded passionate clinician educators who will work together to contribute to education and improve patient care in the future.

Another key developmental programme, the Singapore Chief Residency Programme (SCRP) plays an important role in shaping our Residents’ future aspirations as leaders. The structured leadership training programme brings together Residents from across institutions and specialties, and challenges us to take on roles as change agents within the existing healthcare system to improve it for the patients we serve.

As for my own future, medical education is a calling. It is not just about being a good teacher but also about driving systemic change in healthcare education so as to ultimately improve care outcomes for patients.

Chief Resident Dr Mark Cheah from the SingHealth Internal Medicine Residency Programme believes peer teaching and learning can fundamentally change medical education for the better.

Nurturing Future Leaders in Medicine

We recognise the following Pioneer Fellows who have exemplified the spirit of Generativity by sharing knowledge with their peers in AM•EI workshops.

• Dr Chan Hong Ngee Senior Principal Clinical Pharmacist,

Pharmacy – Inpatient, SGH

• Dr Eugene Wee Senior Registrar, Orthodontics, NDCS

• Ms Goh Soo Cheng Principal Medical Social Worker, SGH

• Ms Joyce Lim Soo Ting Advanced Practice Nurse (SNC), Division of

Nursing (Nursing Specialist Services), KKH

• Assoc Prof Lai Siang Hui Senior Consultant, Department of Pathology, SGH

• Assoc Prof Loo Chian Min Director, Undergraduate Education, Medicine ACP Head & Senior Consultant, Department of

Respiratory & Critical Care Medicine, SGH

• Adj Assoc Prof Mark Leong Senior Consultant, Department of Emergency

Medicine, SGH

• Adj Asst Prof Matthew Ng Consultant, Department of Family Medicine and

Continuing Care, SGH

• Adj Assoc Prof Nigel Tan Academic Vice Chair, Education,

Neuroscience ACP Senior Consultant, Neurology & Education

Director, NNI

• Adj Asst Prof Preetha Madhukumar Senior Consultant, Division of Surgical Oncology, NCCS

• Ms Rachelle Lim Hao Yu Senior Physiotherapist, Department of

Physiotherapy, SGH

• Assoc Prof Simon Ong Academic Vice Chair, Education, Oncology ACP Senior Consultant, Division of Medical

Oncology, NCCS

• Asst Prof Suzanne Goh Assistant Professor, Key Education Faculty, Duke-NUS

• Ms Tan Hui Li Advanced Practicing Nurse, Nursing Division,

Specialists Nursing Services, SGH

• Adj Assoc Prof Wong Kok Seng Academic Vice Chair, Clinical Services &

Improvement, Medicine ACP Head & Senior Consultant, Department of Internal

Medicine, SGH

• Adj Assoc Prof Yong Wei Sean Senior Consultant, Division of Surgical Oncology,

NCCS

Generativity is important toensure healthcare continuity.We need to train the trainers

so that they can better groom the nextgeneration of healthcare professionalsto achieve improved patient careoutcomes.

– Adj Assoc Prof Yong Wei Sean, Senior Consultant, Division of Surgical Oncology, NCCS

Prof Robert Kamei, Co-Director of AM•EI, facilitating a Pioneer Fellows session

At SingHealth and Duke-NUS, we advance healthcare education and embrace lifelong learning for one purpose – to improve our patients’ lives. We teach and develop the next generation of healthcare professionals so that they can deliver even better care tomorrow.

SINGHEALTH EDUCATION SPECIAL

SINGHEALTH EDUCATION SPECIAL

2014 2015

TARGET AUDIENCE INSTITUTIONS CLASS SIZE DURATION APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR

AM•EI Education Grand Rounds (EGR) The AM•EI Education Grand Rounds is a series of talks for healthcare educators and learners to exchange ideas and best practices in education, so as to promote a vibrant, inter-professional learning culture. Session speakers comprise overseas faculty as well as educators from SingHealth and Duke-NUS.

AM•EI 30 1.5 Hours10 Apr

1700 - 1800Academia, L1-S1

8 May1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

12 Jun1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

10 Jul1700 - 1800

Academia, L2-S3

14 Aug1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

9 Oct1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S3

13 Nov1700 - 1800Amphitheatre

8 Jan1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

12 Feb1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

12 Mar1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

AM•EI Education Innovation Grant The grant aims to support our community of passionate inter-professional educators in their healthcare education research projects, such as implementing and developing a teaching project with measurable learning outcomes.

AM•EI Application opens on 23 June 2014. Closing date for submissions is 31 October 2014

SPECIAL INTENSIVE PROGRAMMES (By invitation only)

FP02 AM•EI Fellows Programme (Train-the-Trainer) AM•EI 40 0.5 Day A 12-month structured programme beginning in May 2014. Please contact AM•EI for more information on the next intake.

FXSX AM•EI Fellowship in Team-Based Learning (FTBL) AM•EI 30 5 Days7 - 11 Apr

F1S3, F2S2, F3S1Duke-NUS & Academia

AMLEAD AM•EI Education Leadership Programme (AMLEAD) AM•EI 10 0.5 Day A 12-month structured programme beginning in May 2014. Please contact AM•EI for more information on the next intake.

CORE VALUES

CV1001 Advancing Your Career as an Educator: Building Your Education Portfolio AM•EI 30 0.5 Day6 Aug

1400 - 1700Academia, L1-S4

6 Feb0900 - 1200

Academia, L1-S4

CV1002 Essentials in Clinical Education PGAHI & AM•EI 20 2 Days Please contact AM•EI for more information.

DESIGN AND PLANNING OF LEARNING ACTIVITIES (PLA)

PLA1001 Creating E-Learning Content With Articulate Studio Software AM•EI 5 1 Day22 May

0900 - 1700Academia, L2-T2

30 Oct0900 - 1700

Academia, L2-T2

25 Feb0900 - 1700

Academia, L2-T2

PLA2001 The “Flipped” Classroom: Using Team-Based Learning to Enhance the Learning Within Your Course AM•EI 40 0.5 Day

9 Jul1400 - 1700

Academia, L2-S1

14 Jan1400 - 1700

Academia, L1-S4

PLA2002 Designing Effective Objectives and Quality Multiple Choice Questions AM•EI 40 0.5 Day27 May

1630 - 1930Academia, L1-S4

28 Oct1630 - 1930

Academia, L1-S4

27 Jan1630 - 1930

Academia, L1-S4

PLA3001 Mastering Your Presentations (Train-the-Trainer) AM•EI 10 1 Day Please contact AM•EI for more information.

TEACHING AND SUPPORTING LEARNERS (TSL)

TSL1001 Bedside Teaching – Creating a Positive Learning Experience AM•EI & CRAFD 30 0.5 Day16 Jul

1400 - 1700Academia, L2-S1

5 Nov1400 - 1700

Academia, L2-S1

4 Mar1400 - 1700

Academia, L2-S1

TSL1002 Enhancing and Enriching Learning Through Effective Facilitation AM•EI 40 0.5 Day8 Jul

1400 - 1700Academia, L2-S1

11 Nov1400 - 1700

Academia, L2-S1

10 Mar1400 - 1700

Academia, L2-S1

TSL1003 Issues and Challenges with Assessment and Evaluation AM•EI 40 0.5 Day23 Jul

1630 - 1930Academia, L1-S4

4 Feb1630 - 1930

Academia, L1-S4

ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK TO LEARNERS (AFL)

AFL1001 Strategies to Improve Feedback AM•EI & CRAFD 30 0.5 Day24 Sep

1400 - 1700Academia, L1-S4

18 Mar1400 - 1700

Academia, L1-S4

AFL2001 Using Logic Model as a Road Map to Your Assessment Strategies AM•EI 40 0.5 Day15 Oct

1400 - 1700Academia, L1-S4

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND EVIDENCED-BASED PRACTICE (ERP)

ERP1001 How Do I Get My Research Message Out? Basic Abstract Writing AM•EI & AMRI 30 0.5 Day11 Sep

1300 - 1700Academia

ERP2001 How Do I Get My Research Message Out? Advanced Manuscript Writing AM•EI & AMRI 15 1 Day25 Apr

0900 - 1700Academia, L1-S4

ERP1002 Qualitative Research Workshop, “Why, When, How?” AM•EI & AMRI 30 0.5 Day12 Sep

1300 - 1700Academia

ERP2002 What Is The Best Instrument for My Research Outcomes? AM•EI & AMRI 30 0.5 Day28 Apr

1300 - 1700Academia, L1-S4

ERP1003 Integrating Quality: Creating QI Education and Operational Programmes AM•EI 30 0.5 Day Please contact AM•EI for more information.

ERJC Education Research Journal Club Duke-NUS MERE 20 1 Hour25 Apr

1200 - 1300Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

30 May1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

27 Jun1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

25 Jul1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

29 Aug1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

26 Sep1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

31 Oct1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

28 Nov1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

ERC Personalised 1-to-1 Consultation in Education Research AM•EI 1-to-1 Please contact AM•EI to arrange for a consultation session on your education research project.

EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP (EML)

EML1001 Becoming a Leader in Academic Medicine: Honing and Developing your Skills AM•EI 40 0.5 Day28 May

0900 - 1300Academia, L1-S3

13 Aug0900 - 1300

Academia, L1-S1

15 Oct0900 - 1300

Academia, L1-S3

11 Feb0900 - 1300

Academia, L1-S3

RESIDENTS AS FUTURE TEACHERS (RAFT)

RFT1001 Bedside Teaching – Creating a Positive Learning Experience [For Residents] AM•EI & CRAFD 25 0.5 Day14 Apr

1300 - 1600Academia, L1-S2

6 Jun1300 - 1600

Academia, L1-S4

28 Nov1300 - 1600

Academia, L1-S4

RFT1002 Strategies to Improve Feedback [For Residents] AM•EI & CRAFD 25 0.5 Day5 May

1300 - 1600KKH

5 Dec1300 - 1600

Academia, L1-S4

*Information is correct at the time of printing and subject to changes.

AM•EI partners with various education institutions in SingHealth and Duke-NUS to develop faculty development programmes for healthcare educators across all professions and levels.

Find out more about the faculty development programmes at www.academic-medicine.edu.sg/amei or email amei-info@duke-nus.edu.sg.

Join us as part of a community of passionate academic medicine educators. For membership enquiries, email amei-members@duke-nus.edu.sg.

ALL FACULTY PD, APD AND CORE FACULTY RESIDENTS EDUCATION ADMIN STAFF NURSING STAFF ALLIED HEALTH STAFF

SINGHEALTH EDUCATION SPECIAL

2014 2015

TARGET AUDIENCE INSTITUTIONS CLASS SIZE DURATION APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR

AM•EI Education Grand Rounds (EGR) The AM•EI Education Grand Rounds is a series of talks for healthcare educators and learners to exchange ideas and best practices in education, so as to promote a vibrant, inter-professional learning culture. Session speakers comprise overseas faculty as well as educators from SingHealth and Duke-NUS.

AM•EI 30 1.5 Hours10 Apr

1700 - 1800Academia, L1-S1

8 May1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

12 Jun1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

10 Jul1700 - 1800

Academia, L2-S3

14 Aug1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

9 Oct1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S3

13 Nov1700 - 1800Amphitheatre

8 Jan1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

12 Feb1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

12 Mar1700 - 1800

Academia, L1-S1

AM•EI Education Innovation Grant The grant aims to support our community of passionate inter-professional educators in their healthcare education research projects, such as implementing and developing a teaching project with measurable learning outcomes.

AM•EI Application opens on 23 June 2014. Closing date for submissions is 31 October 2014

SPECIAL INTENSIVE PROGRAMMES (By invitation only)

FP02 AM•EI Fellows Programme (Train-the-Trainer) AM•EI 40 0.5 Day A 12-month structured programme beginning in May 2014. Please contact AM•EI for more information on the next intake.

FXSX AM•EI Fellowship in Team-Based Learning (FTBL) AM•EI 30 5 Days7 - 11 Apr

F1S3, F2S2, F3S1Duke-NUS & Academia

AMLEAD AM•EI Education Leadership Programme (AMLEAD) AM•EI 10 0.5 Day A 12-month structured programme beginning in May 2014. Please contact AM•EI for more information on the next intake.

CORE VALUES

CV1001 Advancing Your Career as an Educator: Building Your Education Portfolio AM•EI 30 0.5 Day6 Aug

1400 - 1700Academia, L1-S4

6 Feb0900 - 1200

Academia, L1-S4

CV1002 Essentials in Clinical Education PGAHI & AM•EI 20 2 Days Please contact AM•EI for more information.

DESIGN AND PLANNING OF LEARNING ACTIVITIES (PLA)

PLA1001 Creating E-Learning Content With Articulate Studio Software AM•EI 5 1 Day22 May

0900 - 1700Academia, L2-T2

30 Oct0900 - 1700

Academia, L2-T2

25 Feb0900 - 1700

Academia, L2-T2

PLA2001 The “Flipped” Classroom: Using Team-Based Learning to Enhance the Learning Within Your Course AM•EI 40 0.5 Day

9 Jul1400 - 1700

Academia, L2-S1

14 Jan1400 - 1700

Academia, L1-S4

PLA2002 Designing Effective Objectives and Quality Multiple Choice Questions AM•EI 40 0.5 Day27 May

1630 - 1930Academia, L1-S4

28 Oct1630 - 1930

Academia, L1-S4

27 Jan1630 - 1930

Academia, L1-S4

PLA3001 Mastering Your Presentations (Train-the-Trainer) AM•EI 10 1 Day Please contact AM•EI for more information.

TEACHING AND SUPPORTING LEARNERS (TSL)

TSL1001 Bedside Teaching – Creating a Positive Learning Experience AM•EI & CRAFD 30 0.5 Day16 Jul

1400 - 1700Academia, L2-S1

5 Nov1400 - 1700

Academia, L2-S1

4 Mar1400 - 1700

Academia, L2-S1

TSL1002 Enhancing and Enriching Learning Through Effective Facilitation AM•EI 40 0.5 Day8 Jul

1400 - 1700Academia, L2-S1

11 Nov1400 - 1700

Academia, L2-S1

10 Mar1400 - 1700

Academia, L2-S1

TSL1003 Issues and Challenges with Assessment and Evaluation AM•EI 40 0.5 Day23 Jul

1630 - 1930Academia, L1-S4

4 Feb1630 - 1930

Academia, L1-S4

ASSESSMENT AND FEEDBACK TO LEARNERS (AFL)

AFL1001 Strategies to Improve Feedback AM•EI & CRAFD 30 0.5 Day24 Sep

1400 - 1700Academia, L1-S4

18 Mar1400 - 1700

Academia, L1-S4

AFL2001 Using Logic Model as a Road Map to Your Assessment Strategies AM•EI 40 0.5 Day15 Oct

1400 - 1700Academia, L1-S4

EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH AND EVIDENCED-BASED PRACTICE (ERP)

ERP1001 How Do I Get My Research Message Out? Basic Abstract Writing AM•EI & AMRI 30 0.5 Day11 Sep

1300 - 1700Academia

ERP2001 How Do I Get My Research Message Out? Advanced Manuscript Writing AM•EI & AMRI 15 1 Day25 Apr

0900 - 1700Academia, L1-S4

ERP1002 Qualitative Research Workshop, “Why, When, How?” AM•EI & AMRI 30 0.5 Day12 Sep

1300 - 1700Academia

ERP2002 What Is The Best Instrument for My Research Outcomes? AM•EI & AMRI 30 0.5 Day28 Apr

1300 - 1700Academia, L1-S4

ERP1003 Integrating Quality: Creating QI Education and Operational Programmes AM•EI 30 0.5 Day Please contact AM•EI for more information.

ERJC Education Research Journal Club Duke-NUS MERE 20 1 Hour25 Apr

1200 - 1300Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

30 May1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

27 Jun1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

25 Jul1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

29 Aug1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

26 Sep1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

31 Oct1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

28 Nov1200 - 1300

Duke-NUS, Rm 3A

ERC Personalised 1-to-1 Consultation in Education Research AM•EI 1-to-1 Please contact AM•EI to arrange for a consultation session on your education research project.

EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP (EML)

EML1001 Becoming a Leader in Academic Medicine: Honing and Developing your Skills AM•EI 40 0.5 Day28 May

0900 - 1300Academia, L1-S3

13 Aug0900 - 1300

Academia, L1-S1

15 Oct0900 - 1300

Academia, L1-S3

11 Feb0900 - 1300

Academia, L1-S3

RESIDENTS AS FUTURE TEACHERS (RAFT)

RFT1001 Bedside Teaching – Creating a Positive Learning Experience [For Residents] AM•EI & CRAFD 25 0.5 Day14 Apr

1300 - 1600Academia, L1-S2

6 Jun1300 - 1600

Academia, L1-S4

28 Nov1300 - 1600

Academia, L1-S4

RFT1002 Strategies to Improve Feedback [For Residents] AM•EI & CRAFD 25 0.5 Day5 May

1300 - 1600KKH

5 Dec1300 - 1600

Academia, L1-S4

*Information is correct at the time of printing and subject to changes.

With multidisciplinary teams being the mainstay in healthcare today, the SGH and KKH Campus Education Offices

(EDOs) are working closely to harmonise the inter-professional education activities on the campuses of both institutions.

Assoc Prof Chan Choong Meng, Director of the SGH Campus EDO, noted, “Education can no longer work in isolation within each institution. There needs to be both vertical and horizontal integration among all healthcare professionals. We should also promote and encourage inter-professional teaching and work towards harmonising the various teaching activities within SGH campus.”

Prof Chay Oh Moh, Prof Chan’s counterpart at the KKH campus EDO, is of the same mind. “Healthcare is a team effort,” she said. “For healthcare to be sustainable, inter-professional collaboration becomes very important. We cannot depend on the same few doctors to deliver across every area. To sustain our high standards of care, we have to nurture the next generation.”

Assoc Prof Koo Wen Hsin, SingHealth’s Group Director of Education and Co-Director of AM•EI, emphasised, “SingHealth aims to be the education

provider of choice for healthcare professionals, doctors and medical students. This can only be achieved through establishing cluster-wide conducive infrastructure and efficient training systems, to facilitate teaching and learning.”

“The transfer of knowledge will ensure a pipeline of competent healthcare professionals for quality patient care,” he added.

Together, SingHealth Group Education works in tandem with the two Campus EDOs to streamline processes, optimise training capacity and enhance the quality of undergraduate training in SingHealth across healthcare professions, including nursing, allied health and clinicians. A key goal is to design a new framework that will create a seamless transition between undergraduate and postgraduate studies, providing a smoother journey for students as they progress in their training.

More structured curricula and integrated training standards will allow practitioners to be trained in delivering better and more harmonised patient care.

The SGH Campus EDO is also working closely with postgraduate units such as the Alice Lee

Institute of Advanced Nursing (Alice Lee IAN), the Postgraduate Allied Health Institute (PGAHI), Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI) and the Academic Medicine Education Institute (AM•EI) to enhance and improve cross-collaboration across the SingHealth cluster.

“We need to eliminate education workload duplication and maximise both the human and structural resources that we have. Our role is to make it easier for people to work together, and to facilitate the work across boundaries,” Prof Chan said.

Leveraging each institution’s strengths, providing support and bridging gaps will be the main roles of the Campus EDOs as they create more formalised, structured pathways for greater inter-professional collaboration. For example, nurses can lead training workshops for clinicians or allied health professionals, while Residents can help to further train junior medical students.

To cultivate such practices, it is necessary that healthcare professionals perceive themselves as educators. Prof Chay pointed out that this is a commitment not only in terms of time and effort but also in terms of the quality of their education involvement. Prof Chan expressed hope that

educators would see their positions as ones of prestige and honour.

“When you take pride in yourself as an educator, you can inspire and influence others to follow in your footsteps, albeit slowly,” he said.

Also in the pipeline are plans to beef up education research, publishing and scholarly activities. Prof Chay said, “We need to work together to increase the level of such activities. This will create greater impact and raise our profile as an international academic centre.”

The activities are expected to further extend SingHealth’s reach across borders and seed evidence-based medical education research for future generations of healthcare educators.

Both Campus EDO Directors believe that their effort will improve patient care by creating a sustainable and efficient healthcare system for the future.

Prof Chay summarised the ultimate aim of their endeavours, “We are working together as one towards Academic Medicine and with one common purpose — to improve patient care.”

Advancing Medical Education as OneThe SGH and KKH Campus Education Offices (EDOs), in close collaboration with SingHealth Group Education, work together to raise the standards of patient care through synergies in education.

Nurturing Residents as EducatorsCreating a Culture of Lifelong Teaching and Learning

Each year, the AM•EI Golden Apple Awards recognise faculty and staff who teach in SingHealth and Duke-NUS for their

dedication, passion and innovation to improve teaching and inspire learners for better patient care.

Using SMS to Improve Feedback to Learners

The winner of last year’s Golden Apple Award for Programme Innovation in the medical category is the team behind the Learning Teaching System (LTS) —a collaborative development between Nanyang Polytechnic (NYP), the National Cancer Centre of Singapore (NCCS) and Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School. The LTS is an automated system that utilises SMS messaging to engage surgical clerkship students and faculty in frequent, focused dialogues.

LTS’s Facebook-like interface allows students to post their clinical reflections online and receive

feedback from their clerkship supervisor almost immediately. Easy-to-use and intuitive, LTS has facilitated students’ clarity of expression, clinical reasoning and use of medical terminology.

Submissions can be further shared among groups for additional learning points. Educators are alerted of postings via SMS and may provide feedback at their own convenience or pose further questions, allowing clinical learning to extend beyond the hospital.

The founder of this innovative system, Assoc Prof Koong Heng Nung, Head and Senior Consultant, Division of Surgical Oncology at NCCS, said, “LTS enables educators like myself to extend the teaching environment beyond the physical environment into cyberspace and harness the power of digital communications. The SMS notification feature has shortened the turn-around time of feedback to the learner.”

According to a student, “LTS has revolutionised and re-imagined learning and teaching for the digital age. It has empowered educators and learners to more effectively improve the outcomes of education; facilitating the training of better healthcare professionals and educators for improved care outcomes.”

Since LTS was rolled out to 85 students under the surgical clerkship in March 2012, the system has increased the frequency, quality and detail of teaching feedback: students received an average of 18 responses from faculty during their 8-week clerkship, all occurring between six minutes to 2.4 days of the original posting.

The Residents as Future Teachers (RaFT) programme gives SingHealth Residents a head start in their journey to become

clinician educators. In line with SingHealth’s Academic Medicine vision to improve patient care via a holistic culture of education, RaFT was designed to turn competent Resident educators into effective teachers and leaders - role models that junior doctors and medical students can look up to.

RaFT is spearheaded by the Centre for Resident and Faculty Development (CRAFD), which was set up in 2009 to look into several areas of focus for Residency, namely programme support, instructional design, curriculum & evaluation, and education technology to equip Residents with medical knowledge and skills to deliver quality patient care.

Dr Denise Tan Yan, Internal Medicine Resident, discovered her teaching abilities through one of these workshops. “I used to think that someone had to have a gift for teaching in order to do it, but through the RaFT sessions, I understand that there

is a science behind it and that there are specific steps you can take to become a better teacher.”

The structured approach that RaFT injects into the teaching methodology facilitates improved ward and clinical teaching.

CRAFD has built the RaFT programme in partnership with the Academic Medicine Education Institute (AM•EI). Based on the Practice-based Learning & Improvement competency, which refers to the ability to continuously improve patient care based on constant self-evaluation and lifelong learning, a specially structured curriculum was designed to facilitate Resident teaching. To date, CRAFD has organised six RaFT workshops, training more than 100 Residents.

Dr James Li, Internal Medicine Resident, is another RaFT participant. He attended the two-day “Clinical Teaching Workshop” conducted by Dr Bradley Sharpe, Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and found it enlightening. “Dr Sharpe taught us that although we teach a lot, what we lack is

the ability to give effective feedback and evaluation. Even if we recognise the importance of teaching, most of us are not equipped to give proper evaluation and feedback to help improve the performance of the person being taught.”

As Dr Mohammad Taufik Bin Mohamed Shah, Diagnostic Radiology Resident puts it, “I teach because I do not like seeing new Residents and students struggle. Teaching reinforces my learning and my knowledge, and I am able to learn from those I teach as well.”

By creating a culture of education among Residents and equipping them with teaching skills, the future pipeline of clinician educators is assured. This translates into real benefits not only for the medical community but more importantly, the patients.

Residents honing their teaching skills at a RaFT programme workshop

Honouring Education Innovation and Excellence

SINGHEALTH EDUCATION SPECIAL

Outstanding educators across healthcare professions transform education by advancing the boundaries of excellence and innovation.

MEDICALLearning Teaching SystemDuke-NUS Graduate Medical School/National Cancer Centre Singapore/Singapore General Hospital/Nanyang Polytechnic

NURSINGResident Nurse ProgrammeSingHealth Alice Lee Institute of Advanced Nursing,Singapore General Hospital/National Heart Centre Singapore

Empowering the nursing profession as Resident Nurses

Another award-winning programme in the nursing category, the Resident Nurse Training Programme also stood out for contributing to the grooming of Resident Nurses. Conducted under the aegis of the SingHealth Alice Lee Institute of Advanced Nursing, the training programme empowers Resident Nurses and equips them with competencies similar to that of junior doctors, often allowing the Resident Nurses to act as a bridge between clinicians and patients. Patients in turn benefit from more holistic and personalised care, in line with the vision for our healthcare system to move towards providing more integrated and seamless care across institutions.

Dr Tracy Carol Ayre, SingHealth’s Group Director of Nursing and Director of Nursing, SGH said, “We introduced Resident Nurses to complement the healthcare team in providing prompt care to our patients.”

“The scheme is beneficial for Senior Staff Nurses and Nurse Clinicians who are keen to develop their expertise as practitioners,” she added.

Since its commencement, the Resident Nurse Training Programme has trained 41 nurses in enhanced care competencies, including skillsets that were originally only taught to doctors, such as interview and history-taking, drawing blood specimens for blood culture as well as male catheterisation.

Senior Staff Nurse Lissa V. Joseph shared her training experience, “I am more effective as a link between clinicians, nurses and patients. I can explain the care plan to my fellow nurses and help them better understand it, which improves the quality of care we are able to deliver.”

The Nursing Resident Training Programme is led by Assoc Prof Lim Swee Hia, who has often been credited for single-handedly raising the profile of nursing in Singapore.

She said, “The roles of nurses have changed to one with more empowerment and autonomy. There are more career paths, for example in nursing informatics, research and with advanced roles such as the Resident Nurse. These roles attract nurses to strive to advance further and render the best care for their patients.”

Nominate an educator for the AM•EI Golden Apple Awards 2014!

Visit www.academic-medicine.edu.sg/amei/gaa2014 for more information.