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1 LINK A Publication from Parkway College MICA (P) 013/11/2012 ISSUE 006/2013 School of Nursing MENTAL HEALTH EXHIBITION P6 News and updates from PARKWAY COLLEGE ALUMNI P8 Photo Credit: School of Nursing, Parkway College & MORE INSIDE: MASTER OF HEALTH ADMINISTRATION Parkway College nurtures its pioneer batch of MHA graduates P6 OPTOMETRY IN ACTION! A life-changing encounter in an under-served rural community P5 LIFE AT CLINICAL Practical advice for clinical rotation from senior students of nursing dipoma programme P4

2 Pg 2 A NOTE FROM US At Parkway College, we take pride in not only by providing academic courses but also workshops and short courses to cater to the needs of the healthcare professionals and the public at large. Moreover, we believe in preparing our own staff to be ever ready in their quest to be better professionals be it in the academic or administrative capacity by providing relevant internal courses and encouraging them to attend quality external courses. Among other matters, this issue of the newsletter highlights some of the courses where participants from the general public, Parkway hospitals and College had participated from the beginning of the year. In tandem with its culture and mission, Parkway College strives to cultivate a culture of outcome-oriented learning by providing high quality education experience to make a difference in people s lives. Editorial Commitee CONTENTS 03 Visitors from Overseas 04 Life in the Clinical Rotation 05 Optometry in Action! 06 MHA Graduation Mental Health Exhibition 07 Teaching Fundamentals Course 08 Alumni News Upcoming Courses Parkway College LINK is published half yearly for Parkway College by Straits Printers Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved. No portion of this publication may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Every care and precaution is taken to ensure that information published in LINK is accurate at time of publication, but Parkway College cannot guarantee its accuracy and may change the information any time without prior notice. All views and opinions expressed in LINK are those of the authors and contributors and are not necessarily those of the publisher, editor or college. Parkway College of Nursing and Allied Health Pte Ltd. 167 Jalan Bukit Merah Tower 4 #03-12 Singapore Tel: (+65) Company Registration No R. Editorial Commitee: Adviser Mrs Nellie Tang Editor-in-chief Mr Anwari Khairuddin Editors Ms Wong Yong Meng Ms Wong Ming Sze Members Dr Richard Tan Mr William Pang Ms Loh Shiou Wei Mr Harris Ismail Design Ms Lilian Poh Production / Circulation Marketing and Communications Department Parkway College For Internal Circulation Only. Copyright All Rights Reserved. Parkway College of Nursing and Allied Health

3 VISITORS FROM OVERSEAS Pg 3 A Learning Visit From Thai Nurse Educators The School of Nursing in Parkway College conducted a short training course for 42 nurse educators from Boromarajonani College of Nursing in Thailand. The 2-day event was aimed to introduce the methods of nursing education employed in Singapore, with emphasis on the use of the latest technology in simulation training. Healthcare Management and Medical Tourism Courses Earlier this year, 23 students from Dong Pusan College in Korea, came to Parkway College for 3 weeks training. They were taught about Healthcare Management, Medical Tourism and English Language from 7th to 24th January Nurse educators from Boromarajonani College of Nursing, Thailand, with staff of Parkway College. Report on MBA for Astana Medical University Parkway College conducted 4 modular units for Master Degree in Business Administration in Hospital Management for students from Astana Medical University of the Republic of Kazakhstan from 4th to 23rd March Students from Dong Pusan College, Korea, with CEO and staff of Parkway College. Students enhanced their knowledge of hospital administration in broad areas of negotiation skills, information technology, operations and healthcare quality. Hospital visits to Mount Elizabeth Hospital and Khoo Teck Puat Hospital were conducted for students to have an understanding of the hospital operations in Singapore. In addition, they also visited Health Promotion Board which provided students with a holistic understanding of diseases prevention and health promotional activities to augment the quality of living for residents in Singapore. Students from Astana Medical University, Kazakhstan, with CEO and staff of Parkway College.

4 Pg 4 Tips from Seniors! Life in the Clinical Rotation By Students of Intake 1201, School of Nursing It begins when you first arrive at the hospital. You do not know what to expect. The next thing you know, the briefing begins, and everyone is listening to the nurse educator making her introductory speech. Induction begins in the form of a tour around the hospital facilities, and you are left in the ward where you will be assisting the staff nurses for the next 3 weeks. To guide you along, we, your seniors have listed a few tips that may be useful for you. 1. Courtesy begins with me It begins with a bright and cheerful Good morning! or Good afternoon!. It does not matter if the recipient of our greeting does not return it. What does matter is that we made the effort to do so. Verbal phrases, such as Thank you, May I help you?, Do you need any assistance? are definitely welcomed in the wards. Not only is courtesy a form of respect, it places us in a favourable light with patients and the healthcare team. 2. Knowledge is power Our nursing skills will come in handy when managing patients. We need to be ready and be prepared with the knowledge that we have acquired in College. If unsure, always ask our clinical instructor or our mentors. It is also essential that we know the layout of the ward, location of the facilities and storage of equipment. When time avails, it might be useful to seek permission to study the patients case files. With the information gathered, we will be able to appreciate the bigger picture, as well as the finer details involved in patient management. 3. Honesty is the best policy Not only is it a quality essential to being a Nurse, but also as a person. Where documentation is concerned, it is best to have integrity. Recording false information about the patient, for example blood pressure and oxygen saturation, may endanger his/her life. This presents a problem when the staff nurse/doctor looks at the results and assumes all is well, without realizing anything amiss. Little do they know that the patient is about to go into medical emergency. 4. Serve with passion Most patients can tell if the nurse attending to them is sincere or merely putting on an act. It can be as simple as asking them how they are doing, or assisting them with rehabilitation, or even cleaning up after them. If we genuinely care about their welfare, be assured that they will be most appreciative.

5 Optometry in Action! By Christopher Ng, Senior Manager, School of Allied Health Pg 5 As a trained Optometrist, I had the opportunity to take part in a vision outreach mission to rural Cambodia in One key objective of the mission was to provide recycled spectacles to the under-served rural community. In this short write-up, I would share a life-changing encounter that I had experienced in my Optometry career. On the first day of our vision screening, I met Ms T.L. She was brought into the examination room by her younger brother. She had to be guided to the examination chair as she had very poor eyesight. We understood that her eyesight started deteriorating at the age of 8 years old. By 12 years old, her eyesight was so bad that she almost fell into the village river. From then, she had to be physically guided by one of her family members for all her daily activities. We assessed her eyesight and found her to be severely short-sighted; 1600 degrees (-16D) in both her left eye and right eye. Patients queuing for their eye examination in a local school site. The closest matching pair of recycled spectacles from our stockpile had only 1450 degrees (-14.50D) in both the left and right lens. In addition, the frame size was too big for her facial features. Although it was more than 100 degrees different from her actual prescription, we decided to give it a try. When we placed the spectacles on the patient, an amazing thing happened; the patient got up from the chair, walked around the room without any assistance, broke into tears and kneeled in front of us in gratitude. We were absolutely shocked, to say the least. VA measurements for 2 Cambodian monks. For those of us who were there, this was the moment. We momentarily forgot about the physical fatigue that we had experienced from screening 400 patients a day. We felt that we had made the world a better place for the young lady. The many hours that we spent in optometry school was well worth it. On a personal level, this patient made a significant impact in the early stage of my Optometry career. A volunteer looking for a matching pair of spectacles. According to World Health Organization s recent estimates, there are 160 million people worldwide who are visually impaired and the majority of the visual impairment in developing countries is avoidable or curable with a simple pair of eye-glasses. From this experience, I believe that all students in Parkway College should be exposed to experiential learning such as the service-learning programme to Cambodia. The experience will certainly enrich their educational journey and at the same time, help the under-served community to retain their sense of sight via such vision outreach missions. As an Optometric educator, I am proud to be a part of this life-changing initiative.

6 Pg 6 PARKWAY COLLEGE NURTURES FIRST BATCH OF MASTER OF HEALTH ADMINISTRATION GRADUATES Parkway College celebrated the graduation of 148 students at the college s graduation ceremony on 5th November Associate Professor Fatimah Lateef, Deputy Chairman of the Singapore Government Parliamentary Committee for Health, was the Guest-of-Honour. Close to 500 attendees including the graduands family members, friends and colleagues were present at the ceremony held at RELC International Hotel. MHA graduand giving a speech. Guest-of-Honour Associate Professor Fatimah Lateef giving a speech. Of the 148 graduands, 10 of them are the first to earn a Master of Health Administration, a 2-year course developed in collaboration with Flinders University of South Australia, for medical, nursing and allied health professionals, as well as administrators in the healthcare industry or related fields, looking to enhance their management skills. All 10 graduates are existing healthcare professionals from the public and private sectors. MENTAL HEALTH EXHIBITION BY SCHOOL OF NURSING Master of Health Administration graduands at the Graduation Ceremony. The Mental Health Exhibition was held on 10th May 2013 in Parkway College Campus. Final year Diploma in Nursing students had the opportunity to showcase their creative skills as well as stretch their knowledge about a few mental health conditions that are quite common in our society, namely; Stress, Anxiety, and Depression. It was a time where all students put their brains together and let their ideas flow to feature an interesting exhibition that would raise public awareness. The Exhibition was not only full of students and visitors; it was also full of excitement and fun to attract attention. A lot of organisational skills and measures were taken to ensure that everyone had a chance to view the exhibits and seek information from the presenters. More than 200 students and guests participated in this exhibition. After analysing feedback from them, it had been identified that 84.97% of the participants stated the programme was beneficial for their coping skills and 98.26% participants rated the Exhibition as highly positive experience. Nursing students presenting an exhibition on mental health. Each station focused on one mental health condition to raise awareness.

7 Pg 7 Professional Development Programme: Teaching Fundamentals Course What is your teaching style? How do you evaluate the needs of your students? Who are the prominent researchers in education psychology? What are some of the learning and teaching theories which educators need to know? The above are some questions that will be answered during the Teaching Fundamentals Course. The main objective of the certificate course is to provide a platform for participants to share knowledge, experiences and best practices in teaching. The 40 hours training programme have been designed in modular mode to cater to the busy schedule of the participants. A total of 18 topics will be discussed in 10 modules. Some of the topics that will be covered are Motivation and Learning Theories, Leadership and Teaching Styles, Roles of an Educator, Assessments: Theory and Practice, Classroom management, Situational Learning, Problem-Based Learning and more. The first run of the certificate course was conducted by Parkway College on 5th April to 3rd May The support and encouragement from the participants had been very encouraging. The next run has been scheduled for September Participants of the Teaching Fundamentals Certificate course conducting interactive discussion of the topics. AGREEMENT WITH VIVO HEALTHCARE, INDIA Vivo Healthcare, based in New Delhi, India, is a leading healthcare training organization focuses on delivering training and educational solutions to meet the rapidly growing need for allied healthcare and emergency medical services education in India. As part of future collaboration in allied health education, Parkway College signed an Agreement with Vivo Healthcare of India on 3rd May This collaboration will focus on certificate courses for Emergency Medical Technician, Operation Theatre Technician, Radiology Technician, and Healthcare Management. Parkway College will also conduct short courses such as Infection Control and Basic Surgical Assistant for participants of Vivo Healthcare programmes.

8 Pg 8 Parkway College Alumni News Update Parkway College Alumni turned one year old on 1st August As a platform to ensure that it continues to be an educational, support and networking resource, some of the activities which have been organised include: Chinese New Year Shopping Day Trip, Exploring Chinatown, The Arena located at Clarke Quay, Reducing Cancer Risk for Women organised by Cancer Education and 2013 Race Against Cancer organised by Singapore Cancer Society. The following are the Continuing Education activities: Congress of the Infection Control Association(Spore), Healthcare Quality Forum by HQSS, Heath Forum on Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month organised by Cancer Society, Public Forum on Laser Vision TTSH. A series of activities was organised by Parkway College Alumni, such as Chinese New Year Shopping Trip. Stay Connected To ensure that you receive all Alumni Updates, please update your contact information at the members portal at For more alumni news and updates, become a fan of Parkway College Alumni on Facebook. Get Involved We are looking for members to assist in extending invitation and encourage their classmates to attend the specially organised programmes for the Alumni. If you are interested in helping out or have any questions please contact Sue Professional Development Parkway College Short Courses for your healthcare-related training needs: Advanced Certificate in Clinical Governance Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Provider Course Basic Cardiac Life Support (BCLS) Basic Surgical Assistant Course Failure Mode and Effect Analysis Hospital Facility Management & Safety Course Infection Control Certificate Course Patient Safety - It Begins With You Performance Measurement in Healthcare Proactive Risk Management Quality Improvement Tools in Healthcare Root Cause Analysis for Healthcare Safe Medication Practice for Nurses Understanding Health Policy Course Understanding Tracer Methodology Use of Medical Terminology in Work Activities (WSQ) Workplace Safety and Health Guidelines in Healthcare For enquiries on courses, please call or to enquiry@parkwaycollege.edu.sg or visit us at for more information.