[Faculty of Global Nursing] International Nursing Practicum III held at the Institute of Mental Health (Singapore)

For five days from February 5th to 9th, 2024, ten third-year students Faculty of Global Nursing completed an internship at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), a hospital for mental illness in Singapore.
IMH is Singapore's only national hospital specializing in psychiatry, and offers a 2,000-bed ward, tertiary emergency and outpatient care, visiting nursing services, etc. IMH also accepts patients of various ethnicities, including Chinese, Malay, and Indian, and provides programs aimed at early social reintegration while respecting their cultures and identities.
During this International Nursing Practicum III, the students visited IMH's outpatient department, pediatric and adolescent wards, geriatric wards, and adult wards that provide social reintegration training. In addition, each student accompanied a nurse and participated in a home visit.
Through this internship, the students learned about the actual health care services that take into consideration the individuality and ethnic identity of patients, including their cultural and religious backgrounds and their strengths. In addition, the last day of the internship coincided with Chinese New Year, and the students enjoyed a unique Singaporean culture by eating a dish called Yu Sheng, which is eaten together to celebrate health, fortune, and success.

Below are some comments from participants of the training.

・We had the opportunity to do our internship at the Institute of Mental Health, the only national psychiatric hospital in Singapore. We learned about Singapore's medical system and how to interact with patients in psychiatric nursing, and also had the opportunity to accompany visiting nurses and observe hospital wards.
During the five days, the participants learned that in Singapore, patients can reduce their financial burden by choosing their own clinic to visit, and that it is necessary for them to receive daily living training while hospitalized in order to return to society.
(3rd year students Faculty of Global Nursing: Abe, Okazaki, Fujii, Momita, and Yamakawa)

・We did an overseas internship for one week and learned about the reality of psychiatric nursing in Singapore. While doing the internship at an overseas hospital, we learned that because Singapore is a multi-ethnic society, the social and cultural backgrounds of all people are respected, such as the fact that hospital food includes halal food and there are places where people can pray. In addition, by doing the internship overseas instead of in Japan, we were able to realize the importance of having one's own culture respected and the difficulty of communicating in another language. We would like to make use of this experience in our future internships and studies.
(Kimura, Harutake, Tsujiguchi, Fujitani, and Yamashita, 3rd year Faculty of Global Nursing)

(Source: Faculty of Global Nursing)