In a bid to attract nurses to public hospitals and retain them, the Ministry of Health (MOH) is extending a sign-on bonus to fresh nursing graduates.
Minister for Health Ong Ye Kung announced the new initiative at a Nurses’ Merit Award ceremony on Wednesday (19 July).
Source: Ong Ye Kung on Facebook
Male graduates who will join the workforce this year after graduating in 2021 and serving their National Service will also be eligible for the bonus.
Mr Ong announced a new package of measures at the event in Orchard Hotel as well as on his Facebook page today.
The most notable of these appear to be a S$15,000 sign-on bonus for fresh local nursing graduates, provided they haven’t taken up a sponsorship or scholarship.
A press release by MOH notes that eligible graduates must be Singapore citizens or permanent residents.
They must also have graduated in 2023 from the following institutes of higher learning:
Those who converted from a part-time to a full-time position in the same public healthcare cluster or publicly funded residential community care organisation in 2023 are also eligible for the sign-on bonus.
Only graduates who join public healthcare clusters or publicly funded residential community care organisations between 1 Jan and 31 Dec this year will get the bonus.
Source: Ong Ye Kung on Facebook
Eligible nurses will receive the bonus in three sets of S$5,000 each, which are paid out at the start of employment, and then at the end of their first and second years of service.
Additionally, male students who graduated from ITE in Dec 2020 or from polytechnics in Mar 2021 and will become nurses this year after NS will also be eligible.
The same applies to male nurses who graduated this year and have to serve NS before joining the workforce in 2025. They just have to accept a conditional job offer by 31 Dec to qualify.
Previously, Mr Ong announced that MOH is aiming to bring on board about 4,000 nurses this year.
This covers both public and private nursing hires.
Mr Ong also announced other measures, such as a long-term retention scheme for nurses. Officers in the Singapore Armed Forces, as well as teachers, already have such a scheme.
To address hospital capacity crunches, there will also be 280 more acute beds added to various hospitals.
For in-home patients, there’ll be 100 Mobile Inpatient Care@Home beds too.
“By setting up hospital equipment at home and having visiting healthcare workers, MIC@Home allows acute patients to be cared for at their home instead of the hospital,” Mr Ong said.
The following care facilities will also see more beds, namely:
Having more of these beds will free up acute beds for those who require medical care, as opposed to social care.
“If all goes according to plan, we should be able to address our capacity constraints and support our healthcare workers to do their jobs well,” Mr Ong said.
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Featured image adapted from Ong Ye Kung on Facebook.
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