PRACHI GAIROLA

1. Executive summary/Abstract

For WOW! 2020, we were allocated to go to Changi General Hospital (CGH). We were specifically attached to the Office of Patient Experience & Engagement, where we redesigned a brochure, and helped out around the office.

2. Background information of the ORGANIZATION

Changi General Hospital (CGH) is a public hospital with over 1,000 beds caring for a community of more than 1 million people in the East.

The Medical Centre houses a variety of outpatient centres, with more than 130 consultation rooms for specialist outpatient care and minor surgery rooms.

Changi General Hospital also includes Specialist Centres and Clinics that are designed to deliver one-stop services organised around disease conditions. These include Breast Centre, Cardiac Clinic, Dermatology Clinic, Diabetes, Obesity, Metabolic & Endocrine Centre, ENT and Head & Neck Surgery Centre, and Geriatric Centre.

3. Background information of the projects / tasks which I was involved in

We were assigned to the Office of Patient Experience & Engagement, which encompasses the total value of all direct and indirect interactions, across all touchpoints, with patients and their families in their care journey.

Our specific tasks were to rearrange a brochure about Asthma, customise a mood calendar to be more suited to the hospital setting, and modify slides about the directory of CGH. After finishing our tasks, we helped around with other tasks around the office.

4. Elaboration / record of the activities done

Firstly, we did the Asthma brochure. We used the software Canva to create and edit the brochure, and split the work between ourselves. Our mentors provided us with medical facts about asthma, which we included in the brochure. We had to change the original design so that it becomes less wordy, making it easier for the audience to read and understand the information provided.

After the brochure, we started work on the mood calendar. In order to make the brochure more suited to the hospital environment, we used a google document to add pictures, and transferred over the text from the calendar.

We also helped to modify slides on the directory of CGH, given to us by our mentors.

Finally, once we had finished our allocated tasks, we helped out around the office with miscellaneous tasks.

5. Summary of work done

× Brochure on Asthma - redesigned for the readers to understand the information easily

× Mood Calendar - customised for the hospital environment, for a more collaborative and supportive work environment

× PowerPoint Slides on the whole directory of CGH

× Edited A&E brochures

× Pasting of logo stickers on items to be given to patients

× Designing a badge meant for volunteers coming to Changi General Hospital

2. 3 content knowledge / skills learnt

Our mentor taught us how to use software such as Adobe Photoshop, in which we could edit posters and pamphlets easily. She explained to us how this software would be better to edit posters, and taught us how to utilise the software. She also told us that most professional posters and brochures are made in software such as Adobe Photoshop and Inkscape. We can also use the skills imparted by her in future digital projects.

We also learnt the importance of time management and prioritising tasks we needed to submit. We split the work between us and by planning our time we were able to complete our work before the deadline. This is similar to schoolwork as we are also giving quite a lot of important work that we need to finish before a deadline, hence the time management skills we learnt during our attachment period will be beneficial in the future.

During the attachment period, we also gained a lot of content knowledge about how to deal with Asthma. As our brochure was dealing with how to treat it and live with it, we learnt a lot about the disease which we did not know prior to this attachment. For example, we learnt that there are two different types of inhalers: preventers and relievers which serve different purposes, and are both important in order to cure asthma. This is information we would not know if not for the attachment programme.

6. 2 interesting aspects of your learning

- Collaborative skills are very important in an office. Even our mentors had a variety of projects that they needed to complete along with other coworkers, and in order to complete their projects on time, they needed to work together efficiently.

- Technological skills are also important in order to do your work efficiently. A lot of the projects involve a large level of using technology to create something. It is surprising for me, as I did not expect that people who work in an office would need to know how to use design software as well.

7. 1 takeaway for life

In a hospital, there are not only doctors and nurses, but a lot of other people who are essential in ensuring that it functions smoothly. Everybody has a role that is important for the hospital, and even though they do not get as much attention as doctors and nurses, they are a key part of the hospital community. This attachment really changed my perspective on how I view jobs. Their jobs are very tiring and draining, with many working from early in the morning to late in the night, and yet most people do not acknowledge or appreciate them. They are responsible for a lot of the tasks ongoing in the hospital, and are crucial in the “Patient Experience”. After experiencing this attachment, I have realized that people who are working behind the scenes may not always be appreciated for their hard work, and I think that we should all start showing them our appreciation more.