Nursing

The aim of this module is to allow students to revise ethical theories studied during their diploma programmes and to further develop their knowledge and understanding of moral philosophy and ethics and their application to health care. Students will explore a range of ethical issues including genomics, euthanasia, abortion, living wills, advanced medical directives and do not resuscitate orders from both an ethical/philosophical standpoint, as well as a legal one. Legal expertise is used to deliver the legal aspects.

This module will provide an in-depth understanding of nursing as a profession with rich career opportunities, which evolves with time to meet the socio-political, economic, healthcare changes. Topics covered in this module include the conceptualization of professionalism of the health professionals with respect to identity, knowledge, skills, and values expected by the nursing discipline. Accordingly, it will address issues related to professionalism, professional values, and attitudes required of a registered nurse in practice. Role taking and positioning and transition issues will be explored. Reflective thinking, as one of the professional attributes in development and learning, will be discussed.

This module will provide an in-depth understanding of conducting a systematic health assessment, data collection, and interpretation of physical assessment findings.  Topics covered in this module include history taking, conducting a focused physical examination, developing clinical reasoning skills, and developing a treatment plan for the patient.  Students will be given the opportunity to develop systematic and focused health assessments that are sensitive to both the cultural and developmental needs of the individual.  Reflective practice on clinical reasoning and care planning will be included.

The World Health Organization (WHO)’s framework of a health system includes resource generation, stewardship, funding and provisioning. The goal of a health system is to improve health, respond to expectations and focus on fairness in financial contribution. In this module, the Singapore health system is described and analyzed within the WHO’s framework. Students will learn to appreciate how policies are developed, health needs identified and met, intersectoral collaborations needed and established, and services organized and evaluated. Through interprofessional studies, they will learn about the needs of patients and the roles of different professions in the health systems addressing those needs.

There are 2 parts to this module: (a) research methods; and (b) statistical appraisal. The first part of this module addresses the purposes, types of research questions, and designs of quantitative research. The students will be introduced to the steps of conducting a quantitative research study, including addressing ethical considerations.

The second part of this module will address statistical appraisal. The students will also be taught the use of statistical software to carry out statistical tests commonly used in nursing and healthcare statistical tests.

Population health is defined as the health outcomes of a group of individuals. It focuses on the determinants of health which include the social, economic, cultural and physical environment, as well as group characteristics and behaviours. It involves the measurement of health, which includes health outcomes such as morbidity, healthcare cost, health-related quality of life and mortality.

The overall goal of a population health management (PHM) is to maintain and improve the health of the entire population and optimise the distribution of health outcomes between population groups. PHM looks into geographical location and communities underpinning the planning of healthcare services at a national level. Other key elements of PHM such as inter-sectoral collaboration and public involvement will also be discussed using local initiatives as an example.

Students will examine various health programmes, theoretical frameworks and behaviour change models for PHM approaches for a group of individuals and communities in order to improve health. They will also be required to critically evaluate the application of such theories and models into practice for specific health programmes across different levels of care and lifespan in the local context in terms of efficacy and effectiveness.

This module will focus on the development of knowledge, skills, and professional attitudes to enable the students to be industry-ready upon graduation to carry out innovation and productivity improvement projects.  The principles, underpinning theories, and methods of applied research, innovation and productivity improvement will be covered. The students will apply their learning to “real-world” clinical and/ or operational problems presented to them for solutioning by the healthcare organizations, during the clinical attachment. 

This module will also develop the communication skills for effective stakeholder engagement, which is an integral component of innovation and productivity improvement professional activities.

The aim of this module is to familiarise the student with the discipline of qualitative research and its relevance to all areas of nursing practice. The course will allow students to explore a range of qualitative methodologies, the appropriate data collection methods and approaches to analyses relevant to this paradigm. In addition, students will explore ethical issues related to research and research governance.

The aim of this module is to introduce the student to some of the key concepts in health and social care at international, national and local levels. This will enable students to gain insight into the organisations responsible for the introduction and implementation of policy within a health and social care environment, what drives policy development and strategies for policy implementation. The students will have an opportunity to appraise the role of the nursing profession in the influencing and implementation of policy and enable the student to understand how policy translates into practice in a diverse range of health care settings.

The aim of this module is to introduce the student to aspects of care provision for individuals with long term conditions, taking cognisance of the physical, psychological and social implications.

Students will also have the opportunity to observe how care is provided for individuals with long term conditions in Scotland through implementation of a four week Overseas Immersion Programme (OIP). The experience will help the student to reflect and make comparisons with how such care is provided in Singapore, as well as being exposed to the wider aspects of health care provision in Scotland to appreciate the overall differences.

The aim of this module is to explore the concept of evidence based practice in nursing and its transition into practice. It will build on the knowledge and skills gained from the research methods modules to enable students to make links with the discipline of research and the development of an evidence base for clinical practice. The student will reflect on their clinical experiences, work through case scenarios and make links between research evidence, clinical experiences and patient preferences, to make evidence based decisions. 

The module will also explore the development of evidence based guidelines, their application to practice and the role of critical thinking and decision making. The importance of utilizing robust evidence in the provision of clinical care and good nursing practice will be emphasised. Organizations such as the Cochrane Collaboration and Joanna Briggs Institute will be introduced to facilitate awareness of the various ways by which nurses can get involved in evidence based practice in healthcare settings.

This module aims to enable students to develop the necessary skills to teach effectively in healthcare settings. The recipients can be health care colleagues, patients, family members and carers. Students will analyse theories of teaching and learning, develop skills in planning for teaching and learn how to assess and evaluate teaching. This module incorporates two weeks of clinical placement, where students will have the opportunity to practice, reflect and refine their teaching skills.

This module provides an opportunity for students to develop the knowledge, skills and attributes of effective leadership and management to shape and manage evolving, complex and diverse health and social care services.  By engaging in active learning strategies and reflection, students are challenged to think critically about theories of leadership and management and their application in practice.  Students will explore the evidence-base for leadership and management including: styles of leadership and management; change management; teamwork; delegation; conflict management; clinical governance and risk management; decision-making and resilience.

The aim of this module is to provide students with the opportunity to complete an academically rigorous Thesis related to an area of clinical/nursing practice of particular interest to the student and of relevance to clinical practice in Singapore.  Students will also have an opportunity to utilize skills developed in the research methods and evidence based practice modules.

The module represents the culmination of learning of concepts and transferable skills developed from all the other academic modules in the programme.

This module provides the opportunity for students to expand their knowledge and understanding of contemporary global health issues. The major challenges in global health will be discussed and the management of such addressed. The main focus will be on the four main non-communicable diseases: cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic lung disease and diabetes which lead to death in three in five people worldwide. The overall aim is to broaden perspectives on health services development, provisioning and delivery, as well as factors that contribute to strengthening the health systems of developing and developed countries.

The application of data analytics in healthcare is multi-faceted. In this module, the students will be introduced to the application of data analytics in programme evaluation. The module will be composed of 2 parts: (a) programme evaluation; and (b) public health informatics and data analytics. 

For part 1, the students will learn the purpose, theoretical underpinnings, process and methodologies of programme evaluation. For part 2, the students will learn about information systems for programme evaluation in healthcare; and the use of a data analytics software to carry out the analyses of secondary data for programme evaluation.

This module will provide an in-depth understanding of the principles of palliative and end-of-life care for patients. Students will learn how to work inter professionally in order to holistically assess patients in various healthcare settings to improve their quality of life. Included will be physical, psychosocial, ethical, spiritual and cultural aspects, which will be used to develop a person-centred care plan. Cognizance will be given to the role of caregivers and their needs. The centrality of therapeutic communication skills and how these may be developed will also be addressed.