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The government will ramp up recruitment of foreign nurses to meet the urgent need for nursing manpower, said Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Health Rahayu Mahzam in her Mar. 3 Committee of Supply (COS) speech.

This will complement a local core, especially amidst an ageing population and fewer young graduates joining the workforce.

In order to retain nurses, who are valued members of the community and who have demonstrated their commitment to Singapore, Rahayu said that "we should be prepared to grant them PR status" as "it means retaining a pool of manpower that is of critical value to Singapore."

Meeting the needs of nurses

She also noted that in recent years, the global competition for healthcare workers — particularly nurses — has intensified.

This is reflected in the rising attrition rate for foreign nurses, which has spiked from 9.5 per cent to 14.5 per cent between 2019 and 2022.

"The loss of both local and foreign nurses to our competitor countries is a key reason for the stress and high workload for our nurses," Rahayu explained. "We need to replace the manpower lost to other countries, safeguard the welfare of nurses, and meet increasing needs."

In addition to hiring more nurses, she stressed that more must be done to retain existing healthcare workers.

One way that institutions do this is by maintaining contact with nurses who leave the practice. She noted that about 750 non-practising nurses return to the practice each year.

The government also reviews salaries regularly to ensure that healthcare workers are paid competitively, she added.

Protecting healthcare workers

To retain talent, ensuring the well-being of healthcare workers is also imperative.

According to a Tripartite Workgroup formed by the Ministry of Health (MOH) last year, abuse of healthcare workers is on the rise, with almost one in three healthcare workers witnessing or experiencing abuse at least once a week.

"The great, great majority of our patients and their loved ones and our family members, they do [appreciate and respect healthcare workers]. And this is hugely motivating for our healthcare workers," said Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung in a separate speech.

"But the abuse and harassment by a small minority is a rising issue in our healthcare institutions. This is not acceptable, and we will need to take a firmer stand against this."

For instance, the government will empower hospitals to take a firmer stand against such abuse.

A clear and consistent definition of abuse will also need to be established.

The Workgroup has completed their review and will be sharing the findings later this month, Ong added.

Top image via National University Health System/Facebook