INTRODUCTION
As part of NUS (National University of Singapore) efforts to be one of the world’s leading universities, the newly formed NUSEU (National University of Singapore Excellence Unit) aims to encourage student participation in identifying communication needs in certain industries/workplaces. After identifying the communication needs, a written proposal of 6-8 pages has to be created explaining, in the form of a proposed course of study, supplement to existing modules and/or other recommendations, how the identified needs could best be served. It is required that the written proposal also discusses the benefits and possible challenges of the proposed changes for all stakeholders, including graduating students. All this is to help improve communication in the proposed workplace or industry mentioned in the proposal. In line of this mandate given to us, we have accepted to write this proposal based on the medical/healthcare industry as it is a highly lucrative and advanced sector.
As part of Singapore’s efforts to establish itself as a global brand of reliability and excellent service, there has been a recent shift towards a more service-centered economy fuelled by various improvements in different service sectors. One of the service sectors that have seen much and continuous revamps is the medical sector. Several changes to the curriculum and the recent establishment of a new graduate medical school, DUKE-NUS, have seen the medical sector gearing up to provide the best and most advanced services the world has to offer. To attract and build its positioning as such, much effort has been made towards patient care and the education of doctors and nurses in providing the best that our medical sector has to offer. As what Mr Lee Hsien Loong, the Prime Minister of Singapore said in The Straits Times, 2008, “ Doctors and nurses act as the bridge in associating quality healthcare with advanced technology and research in medicine to patients. Without them, patients will never be able to benefit and
BACKGROUND
Surveys and studies conducted have proven that effective communication between doctors is essential in delivering quality healthcare to patients. Communication is integrates every aspect of healthcare, facilitates the running of the healthcare institute and ensures the quality of healthcare given to patients. However there is much work needed in tackling effective communication between the doctors and nurses as shown by the survey conducted by several medicine schools and departments across the world. One such survey is the one done by the medical and nursing administration at
According to surveys that have been done with nurses, doctors need to understand what the nurses task is and the difficulties they face in their profession when trying to meet the demands of the doctors. There has been overpowering claims (REFERENCE)
that doctors tend to treat nurses as subordinates and ‘slaves’. This can lead to sources of conflict. Usually doctors are considered the more omnipotent ones compared to nurses due to their education levels while nurses have been seen as the deferent ones with the expectation of simply fulfilling orders rather than assume a more autonomous role (National Centre of Continuing Education,
Other factors that have led to communication problems between doctors and nurses is the lack of understanding on each profession’s goals and functions.This can lead to problems when they are working together for the well-being of the patient as it can lead to differing views in deciding the weightage of patients’ problems (Medical review