TTSH staff trained to carry out less specialised nursing tasks
About 150 staff from Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) have stepped up to be trained in some nursing duties to ease the strain on its nursing workforce.
Around 1,500 employees across the hospital - including doctors, nurses and therapists - have been deployed to fight Covid-19 at TTSH's screening centre and the National Centre for Infectious Diseases.
To allow the remaining nurses to concentrate on clinical care for patients, the hospital launched a programme last month for non-nursing staff to be trained and to carry out less-specialised - but still essential - nursing tasks.
Known as para-nurses, the staff, from various backgrounds, are deployed temporarily in one of four roles.
Ms Laura Ho, deputy director of TTSH's nursing service, said the idea was to assign trainees to jobs that matched skills they had picked up in their previous roles, so that they could be quickly trained and deployed.
"During this pandemic, the nurses are very drained," she said. "It's about providing that extra helping hand - and to tell our nurses, 'You're not alone, you have a group of people around to help you manage'."
Two of those extending help are Ms Crishanna Devi Naidu Thayalamurugan, a therapy assistant in the occupational therapy department, and Ms Kelly Ler, a senior patient service associate in the hospital's Centre for Geriatric Medicine.
In her previous role, Ms Crishanna helped therapists transfer and move patients, and would sometimes see her own patients as well.
MAKING THE SWITCH
Ms Ler used to assist doctors during consultations and called patients and families to arrange appointments and home deliveries for medication.
To make the switch to her new role, Ms Crishanna was taught the different types of oxygen masks patients might require and how to change their diapers, among other things. Ms Ler had to learn how to feed patients and move them from a bed to a chair.
They currently look after about five to 10 patients in general wards each. Aside from performing duties such as measuring vital signs and taking patients to the toilet, they also lend them a listening ear.
"They don't really have a lot of people to talk to, so when we're there and can listen to them, it makes them happier, puts them at ease," said Ms Crishanna.
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