KOH GUANG WEI, ANSON

Abstract

My group and I were attached to a department in Changi General Hospital (CGH), which is the Regional Health System (RHS) that was only established around Jan 2018 when MOH reorganised the health system into 3 integrated clusters, namely NHG, SingHealth and NUHS. For the project that I was assigned to complete, my mentor, Dr How Choon How, actually challenged my group and I to instead of producing one video, come up with several videos that can help either educate the staff in CGH or be released to public to educate the general public on the programmes and facilities available under the RHS of CGH. My group and I had to meet up with the programme managers of the respective programmes under CGH to understand more about each programme to produce the videos.

Background information of the tasks as well as the tasks that my group and I had to complete

The focus of this project is to actually further educate the staff as well as the general public on the background information about RHS and allow people to understand what RHS actually is. Our mentor, Dr How, actually gave us this task as although people were working in the same hospital, CGH, some of them might not actually know about the RHS department, as well as the programs that are available. Hence the aim of the project is to publicise as well as to teach others what RHS is about, be it among the staff of CGH or to the general public. Other than that, the other videos of the respective programmes under RHS serves to firstly educate the staff in CGH such that the staff will know more about the kinds of patients that can be referred to each of these programmes. By doing so, the patients in CGH will benefit as well as receive different kinds of healthcare from an integrated healthcare system. As for educating the general public, the video also serves as a way to advertise such programmes so that when there is a time where these programs are needed, people would know the kinds of programs that they can enrol or subscribe to, for their own benefits.

Over the course of the 3 weeks, my group and I had to come up with the videos, as well as the storyboards and the scripts required to produce the videos that we had to complete. My group and I decided to do 3 videos: The first one was an introduction to the RHS. The second one was a video to educate the staff in CGH about the Hospital-to-home program, which is actually a nationwide programme that supports patients with complex health and social needs who face a high risk of readmission. This programme sets out to support the patients' transit from the hospital back to their home and stay well, age well and live will in the community. The third video was about educating the general public on the GPFirst program. GPFirst was first launched by CGH in 2014 to encourage residents in the East to seek medical help from their GPs (General Physician) for mild to moderate medical conditions instead of heading straight to the A&E department of the hospital. It is currently only available for residents living in the Eastern region of Singapore. However, it is said to be expanding to other regions of Singapore as well.

Firstly, in order to get the storyboards and the scripts that must be done, my group and I had to spend a few days talking with the respective program managers, getting useful information, taking down notes as well as taking pictures or getting any relevant pictures or videos that would help in our video production. Then, we had to also do some research by ourselves, to find out even more about the programs. After which, we put down the notes that we have gathered and consolidated the information altogether on a Google Document.

Next, my group tasked me to do the scripts of all the programmes under the RHS while Jolie, my groupmate, was tasked with doing the script of the video that introduces the RHS. Nicole, my last groupmate, was then tasked with planning of the storyboards. My group and I worked closely together and we tried to complete it as soon as possible, so that we would have enough time to finish the videos.

Outcomes of the Project

To complete these 3 videos, my group and I had to engage in a discussion with the programme managers of the following programmes

3 Content knowledge/ Skills learnt

The first content knowledge or the skill that I have learn is the importance of Science and Technology (S&T) in our present life. When visiting CGH, I realised that CGH has been incorporating S&T into many of their facilities and services. The first example would be the robots that deliver meals to the patients, then return to their charging stations to get charged. After the patients are done with the consumption of their meals, the robots will collect the dirty dishes and send them to be washed. After which, they will return to their charging pods to get charged. A feature on these robots is the anti-collision feature. When travelling in a straight line with no obstacles, the robot will speed up and upon detecting an object or a person in front, it will immediately come to a stop. This is very important in a hospital where there are many patients. There was also a SEEK machine, which is a one-stop kiosk for patients to take their vital stats, be it blood pressure, weight and even height. The patients could get all those details in a short period of time, all in one place. This has allowed me to understand that with the use of S&T, many of these services that used to be done manually are now done in a more efficient way. S&T can also help to reduce the waiting time, be it when serving the food or in the measurement of vital statistics. This shows that S&T will be very important in the future, when it comes to working alongside us.

The next content knowledge that I have learnt is in-depth information about the Regional Health System (RHS), as well as the programmes under the scheme. If I wasn't attached to CGH, to this specific project, I would not have found out so much about these programmes as well as the RHS system. It was also due to this project that I found out about the objectives of the respective programmes, as well as the kinds of patients/ people that can enrol in the respective programmes. Furthermore, I got to find out so much more about what the RHS is about, and what it aims to achieve, which is to allow everyone to grow well, live well and age well.

Another thing I learnt is the amount of efforts that the Singapore government as well as the people are carrying out to tackle the problem of an ageing population in Singapore. By 2030, there will be a ratio of 2.3 working adults to 1 elderly person as compared to 2006, whereby there were 6.9 working adults to 1 elderly. This would mean that there will be a huge stress on the economy when it comes to taking care of the elderly, as well as the economic burdens that the working adults have to bear to continue supporting the elderly. Due to this project, I have found out more about the programmes that the Ministry Of Health (MOH) is trying to push out, such that the economic burden and stress on the working adults can be lessened. It is expected that working adults will have to pay more taxes as the years goes by, such that it will be sufficient to support the medical sector to take care of the elderly, to allow them to age well. This would also mean there will be an increase in demand of healthcare workers, be it doctors, nurses, psychologist, therapist or even dieticians.

2 Interesting aspects of your learning

The first interesting aspect of my learning would definitely be the chance and opportunity to meet people of all backgrounds, working in different aspects of the medical field. Personally, I even got a chance to interact with a social worker as well as her team, to help clean up a patient's home. These are all interesting aspects of this project that I would not have gotten a chance to do, if not for this project. After interacting with the people that I worked with, I found out more about the medical sector, as well as the challenges, difficulties and the problems that they face. Initially, I used to think that being nurses or working in the medical field in general wasn't difficult. However, upon my project allocation as well as my job attachment, I have found out so much more about the medical field and realised that it is not as easy as everyone perceives it to be. There are so many aspects that were different from what I imagined it to be. I did not know that nurses had to be so patient, so friendly and so understanding, be it to the patients, patient's family or the caretakers.

The next interesting aspect of my learning would be the fact that I got to understand more about the Ministry Of Health, as well as the background information about the different kinds of efforts and initiatives that the government as well as the people are putting in, so as to provide a better healthcare for its people. Furthermore, it was thanks to this WOW! job attachment that I managed to be exposed to so many more programmes under the Regional Health System, which broadened my knowledge about these programmes. Now, I can even make recommendations, as well as to advise my friends, parents and even my relatives on what kinds of programmes that different kinds of patients can enroll in, so as to stand the most from it. Next, it was also thanks to this job attachment that I got to find out more about the daily life of these staff, working in the medical field, be it nurses or doctors. I got to find out more about the difficulties and challenges that they face, as well as the values that they must have in order to do well in their respective job scopes. It is definitely tough on them to bring the best health care they can, as well as to put the patient's feelings and concerns above all when they are treating them.

1 Takeaway for Life

From this job attachment, I feel that the most important takeaway for life for me personally would be to choose a career as well as a job that you like. The term "passion" and "interest" should be aligned with the job that I do in future, as with passion and interest incorporated in the career choice that I make, I am able to perform better and achieve better results due to the job being something I enjoy doing, as well as not dread completing. Furthermore, if I am passionate as well as interested in the job I am doing, I will be able to strive to receive better results, even if it meant that I have to put in extra time or effort as ultimately, it brings me joy when completing it. Therefore, it will never feel like a job when I am completing the tasks and I will then not dread to have to complete them.