The National University of Singapore will be offering a degree course in nursing next year in a bid to attract more Singaporeans to nursing.
Currently, foreigners make up 25 percent of the nurses in Singapore and they come mainly from the Philippines, India, China and Myanmar.
The shortage in nurses is expected to worsen as Singapore's heathcare needs increases with a rapidly ageing population.
And it is about time.
Joanne Pang, a nurse clinician with NUH, says a degree in nursing here has been a long time coming.
She had to take a part-time course while continuing work in Singapore so that she can upgrade her diploma to a degree.
Currently those who wish to own a degree have a few options.
One is to take a part-time course at the Singapore Institute of Management that ties up with the University of Sydney or take up a course with the Singapore Nurses Association with Australia's La Trobe University.
Ms Joanne Pang said: "When I was doing my degree I actually had to take my own time to attend classes. And on top of that we actually do not have proper guidance in the sense that when we have an assignment given to us, we really had to do it and when we do have questions or when we do have problems, we have nobody else to look to other than our old colleagues who have done the degree before."
Senior Staff nurse Jurainah Salleh also gave the move the thumbs up.
Jurainah Salleh, Senior Staff Nurse, NUH, said: "It will not only improve my knowledge in nursing but it will also give me better experience and exposure to be able to mingle with other graduates in NUS, for example the doctors, the dentists, the pharmacists which will in the end be my fellow colleagues."
The move is aimed not only to raise standards and reduce the shortage of nurses here but also to improve the quality and give opportunities for nurses to upgrade their skills.
Nurses are now expected to take on greater roles and responsibilities in the provision of good heathcare.
As such, there is great demand for highly skilled nurses.
The NUS medical faculty will be housing the three-year Bachelor of Science in Nursing programme.
The University plans to enrol 50 in its first intake.
But it may increase the number to 200 over the next few years.
It's opening its doors to A-level and polytechnic holders as well as working nurses who want to upgrade their diplomas to a degree.
Professor Lee Eng Hin, Co-chairman, NUS School of Nursing Working Committee, said: "We will have our current lecturers from the faculty of medicine, faculty of science as well as the faculty of arts and social sciences. However, they will not be able to teach the nursing area as much so we will have to recruit probably some very good people from foreign countries to do that."
Out of 18, 000 nurses in Singapore, only 15 percent are degree-holders - a sharp contrast to many other developed countries where most nurses have degrees.
Ang Bee Choo, Deputy Chairperson, NUS School of Nursing Working Committee, said: "Nursing is lacking far behind. In fact in our region, the Asian region, we're the only developed country that doesn't have a programme. Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam has a programme. So there is a lot of catching up to do. We hope with this degree programme, more locals will do nursing and will help alleviate the shortage of nurses and bring down the percentage of foreign nurses."
The degree programme will be run with money donated by the Lee Foundation. - CNA