Master’s in palliative care to boost healthcare capabilities
After nurse clinician Chang Yee Yee, 41, worked at an acute hospital as a wound care nurse for 17 years, she moved to Dover Park Hospice as a palliative nurse, believing that she could apply her experience and skills in the new role.
Yet she has found that she has a lot more to learn in her role at the hospice, even though it has been three years since the move.
“Although I have a specialist diploma in palliative care, I feel I need more knowledge to take care of end-of-life patients better. At the hospice, we not only need to take care of the patients’ well-being, but we also have to be mindful of the families’ mental health,” she said.
A new Master of Science in Holistic Palliative Care (HoPE) will help healthcare professionals like Ms Chang hone their skills in a field where many feel unprepared to provide care.
The programme is developed and delivered by the Palliative Care Centre for Excellence in Research and Education (PalC), which is a collaboration between Nanyang Technological University’s Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine), the National Healthcare Group and Dover Park Hospice.
Professor Jennifer Cleland, vice-dean of education at LKCMedicine, said: “(The course) emphasises the multidisciplinary nature of suffering and its management in different healthcare settings. The various modules also provide a strong focus on end-of-life care in an Asian context.”
She added that while there are other master’s programmes in palliative care offered across the globe, “there is none in Asia or with an Asian context that covers cultural, religious and familial aspects”.
The programme will be taught by a multidisciplinary faculty and designed by palliative care experts “to address the unique challenges within the Singapore and Asian communities”.
The Asian-centric focus helps enhance the palliative care ecosystem across the region, where increasingly there are challenges of rapidly ageing populations and manpower development needs in palliative care.
The course starts in August. Registration for the HoPE graduate certificate programme opened in January and will end in April.
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