On the plight of the foreign nurses and care-taker, let’s look at the other side of the coin. Singaporeans, I think, are not keen to look after elderly. And that is why we had to resort to employing foreigners. The language barrier could be the only saving grace for these foreigners. Taking care and being surrounded by elderly is emotionally draining. The communication barrier could be the only thing that saves their sanity.

those who harp as if giving birth is like serving NS so way off the mark, simply because few countries have conscripted armies.

lol…

kudos to Nursing post #25 on December 13th, 2009 2.38 am
for sharing.

In the earlier years, the student nurse of school of nursing, while they go on course, they have hospital attachment (almost like full time) under supervision of SRN , nursing sister and matron. (nursing sister is somewhat like platoon commander, there are 2-3 per ward, taking charge of all the SRN, AN, NAs in that ward, while matron are like CO, taking charge of one block of hospital ward)

Anyway, the female NS can do nursing duty (they are no different from those A-level holders, who are nursing students of School of Nursing, while they study nursing (after A level), they have On-Job-Training).

Also, the manpower requirement is a lot more than we think.
There are hospitals, outpatients, and nursing homes. They can also perform duties at SAF as medics too (service medics), or as ambulance assistant with SJCDF, Some can also be sent to MOE for training to be childcare centre assistance, or kindergarden teachers. KK hospital also can get these ns-female to help to nurse the babies.

It is good if female has NS in nursing, or MOE-childcare centre, baby-ward, or kindergarden. These females will learn skil to help the sick, and the babies. It will be a boost for our dwindling population, as many female are simply too career minded.

If females has some nursing skills, it is helpful for them to take care of their parents (when their parents get old, they will need nursing help, and it is useful for the female to learn that skil)

Just like many male NS medics or clerk, they learn nursing skill or office skil like typing , filing etc…. and these are useful life skills too.

If female do NS in nursing, they can also take over some service medics of SAF, thereby release more man to do the tougher type of SAF duty.

In a war time, having our females with nursing skill also help t stabilise the home-ground

Local nurses cannot accept the low pay of these foreign nurses, because if they do – they themselves will also end up in a nursing home one day!

It’s about time the government did something for the elderly. If there is sufficient numbers, who knows, they might open a special wing just for the elderly.

” For example why no one raises questions about the responsibility of children whose parents ended up in such dire state..”

well, is this not clear that Apathy is the problem? People know about these issues. They act and behave like a Apathetic. That is the most pathetic about singaporeans.

Singapore will change for the better when majority be honest with their conscience and stop behaving apathetically. So, though born not apathetic, many consciously choose to behave so. That is the problem.

i agree that it does not mean that it would not work just bec no other had tried before. However it would be prudent to study other countries eperience if there are any Well if indeed no one tried it why not we try it Tell the highly paid PAP about your proposal I think it is an good one why they not think of it with their high salaries!!!

Yes about your balloting solution I overlooked it Yes it seem to be a good idea too!

Only last issue is the conparison with NS men making mistakes with ammo and guns vs a NS nurse make mistake kill the patient In the former it is an internal SAF matter house problem all under military laws and those hurt are also likely to be NS own group of people

In the latter it is a different thing – How can the unlucky patient a member of the paying public affected by a negligent NS nurse sue? How and who to sue? We are talking of 18 year old girls making a mistake and the paying patient died I don’t think this is a serious enough problem that happens often but it has to be debated
your proposal is still good i think despite all i said aboe
zero

Your time and turn will come also eventually when the same will happen to you in years to come and when you challenge them their reply will simply be , but did’nt you do the same to grandpa and grandma when they became old?

So lets all try our best to do whats right for our old folks who brought us up for we have only ourselves to blame for coming inot this world. Yes our parents had a part to play in it but blame also falls on us for beint he “fastest sperm” !
Of course, if our folks need medical care and have to be in a home so it must be so but if they are able , let them grow old with us.Find it it your heart to appreciate them and acommodate them as best we can.

When my dad who passed away from cancer last july was asked by his doctor whether he wanted to go to a hospice, his reply was “whatever for, I have a home to go to”, that touched my heart. When he left us I told my mom who said the MJ song “Gone too soon” was appropriate for my dad. But jokingly I said we should chnage the song to :”TOOK TOO LONG” cos he survived for 3 years when the doctors gave him 6 months.

On hind sight , I wished he had taken a bit longer to stay with us.

aren’t our NSFs soldiers handling real rifles, real ammos, real grenades, real tanks and real danger too?
we have 18, 19 years old NSFs driving tanks and firing ballistic missiles that can kill countless lives and your saying our females cant be responsible to be nurses?

i fail to see how our males are put into real danger while their same-age females cant pick up similar responsibility.

besides, we are already having lapses by healthcare staffs(foreigners??) today, especially the recent overdose of 2 cancer patients. our healthcare standards will definitely be better off serviced by true blue Singaporeans, instead of foreigners’ weak ability to communicate with Singaporean patients.

you have sidestepped my suggestion of a Malaysia style of ballot-NS. Ministry of Health can determine the amount of NSFs it wants.

sign-on regular nurses, who have received more training and experience, can be tasked to take up higher responsibilities of helping out in Intensive Care Units and major surgeries. exactly the way how Staff Sergeants equivalent of a Senior Nurse.

like the SAF, we can also lower the rising unemployment rate among Singaporeans.

please note, no other country in the world had done it?
is this reason valid enough to shoot down this proposal?
didnt the PAP claim they are exceptional talents and Singapore has done what no other country has done?
i can see a PAP-ingrained of cover-backside mentality from your statement.

vote for Change, vote the PAP out.

Your point that care of the elderly should first be shouldered by us is valid, but it’s not fair to bash foreign nurses just to prove your point.

I still like your idea very much but i’m somewhat skeptical regarding the implementation aspect.
For guys, 20000 of them a year doing bmt, ocs, etc…in the SAF is not a problem, and also to deploy them doing all sorts of silly stupid work like marching and national day parade and crowd control and going to australia for a month training, all bullshit no-value, no-harm-to-anyone activities just to pass the sentence of 2 years.

However, if you deploy 20000 female workers a year and send them to REAL LIFE situation not mock-jungle training, who is responsible if this half baked nurses make mistakes and do stupid things in the hospital causing the patients to die?

As with males in NS, some of these females in the proposed female NS, would just simply hate the job, and would be more prone to make errors. However, for males, they could mess up and nobody cares it is internal problem of SAF. However if the female nurse mess up in the public hospital what are the repercussions? Examples: administering wrong medicine, forgetting to dispense medicine, failure to operate a machine correctly, forgetting to do certain procedures correctly which a professional trained and really-interested nurse might do better.

I agree that the simpler jobs definitely can be done by this new NS girls. However, how many simple jobs are there? 20,000 of females coming out a year… to what level of skill you want to train them? simple jobs are fewer – as mentioned cannot sustain 20000 a year coming out… yet more complex jobs, do we trust them with human life in other sectors of health care, as someone suggested?

If the idea is great, i am only wondering why no other country in the world had done it… the reasons might be related to some of the issues which i just mentioned…

Zero