Courses to Improve Quality of Life for Seniors in Singapore

Since the revamp of the Learning Management System portal, eight Community Care partners have hopped on board as a Learning Institute that care professionals can tap on 13 training courses offered. In this month’s feature, we put the spotlight on Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

The People's Hospital

Tan Tock Seng Hospital is undoubtedly a familiar name to many Singaporeans. Known as the People’s Hospital, TTSH was founded in the 1800s for the purpose of serving the community — a mission that remains unchanged more than 170 years later. As one of the largest multidisciplinary hospitals in Singapore, the hospital works jointly with more than 80 community partners and operates some 60 Community Health Posts to bring care closer to the community.

Beyond its medical services, TTSH is also known for its role in healthcare education and research. The 177-year-old hospital currently hosts the Ng Teng Fong Centre for Healthcare Innovation, Singapore’s largest purpose-built innovation building that facilitates the transformation of the workforce to be future-ready. The nine-storey building features MICE facilities, simulation and innovation labs, as well as engagement spaces.

At the heart of the workforce transformation efforts is the Centre for Healthcare Innovation (CHI) Co-Learning Network, which currently has 37 local and international partners from Academia, Strategic Agencies, Healthcare, and Industry. Hosted by Tan Tock Seng Hospital and the National Healthcare Group, the network has three strategic thrusts to drive healthcare innovation: Build Thought Leadership, Drive Workforce Transformation, Enable Healthcare Training. Joining CHI as collaborating centres are:

a. Centre for Allied Health and Pharmacy Excellence (CAPE): Focuses on building capabilities for thought leadership, workforce transformation and innovation for Allied Health Professionals and Pharmacists.

b. Centre for Asian Nursing Studies (CANS): Established to generate Asian-focused nursing thought leadership by empowering nurses to be changemakers through refining future Nursing care models.

c. Centre for Central Health Activation (CHA): Focuses on Activation, Research and Training (ART) mainly via drive activation, and building a community of carers who are equipped to take charge of their health and, in turn, care for their loved ones and the community.

d. gAmes for heaLth InnoVations cEntre (ALIVE): A collaboration that brings together healthcare providers, academic institutions and industry to study healthcare-related Serious Games Initiatives and research.

e. Centre for Medical Technologies and Innovations (CMTI): Established to commercialise products borne out of solving clinical problem statements, as a joint effort between practitioners and solutions providers.

Building Capabilities of the Community

CHI offers a wide range of training courses, from Neurology to Lean & Service Design. With a pool of dedicated and experienced trainers, these programmes are designed to be learner-centric — the content is divided and scaffolded progressively with learning activities, demo, and hands-on activities.

Interested to take up courses to help seniors age gracefully? Here are some training courses that Community Care professionals can anticipate from the Centre for Allied Health and Pharmacy Excellence (CAPE) at CHI, Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Speech Therapy in the Community: What can you do? ($170, 4 hours)

Suitable for: Support Care Staff

What you’ll learn: The incidence of dysphagia in nursing home residents is estimated to be about 25 to 70 per cent around the world. With pneumonia being one of the leading causes of death among seniors in Singapore, possibly due to dysphagia, this half-day course aims to improve carers and staff’s understanding and management of dysphagia. It’ll also equip them with basic skills to communicate effectively with residents.

Identify Waste Improving through 6S ($160, 4 hours 15 mins)

Suitable for: Anyone in the sector who is keen to learn how to reduce waste and add value to the organisation processes

What you’ll learn: 6S is a systematic approach to create a safe, clean and organised workplace to facilitate flow of work, people and material to drive efficiency. This online learning module introduces learners to the 6S methodology, a basic Lean process improvement tool to remove waste and organise learners' immediate work area to improve flow and efficiency. As learners gain practice in organising their immediate physical work areas to facilitate workflow and increase productivity, this knowledge can be transferred to a higher-level setting where they can re-organise a virtual workspace, work responsibilities as well as work processes. The action is small but the impact is far fetching in the long run as improved workflow will help patients gain access to better quality care faster.

Interested in other TTSH’s courses? Here’s a summary of the courses:

For more information on courses to kickstart your professional development, simply click here to access the Learning Management System (LMS). Filter to “Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH)” as the Learning Institute of your choice to find out more about the courses offered.

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