FAQs

NNA was established by the Ministry of Health, Singapore (MOH) in 2019 to support continuing professional nursing capability development to keep the nursing workforce equipped with up-to-date nursing skills and competencies.

It operates as a virtual entity – a portal to provide nurses, healthcare institutions, and nursing education training providers access to a suite of programmes and courses available.

NNA will guide all nurses in identifying their professional capabilities development gaps and provide a list of relevant courses that prepares nurses to be responsive in meeting the evolving healthcare needs of our population. Nurses can be assured that their skills attained through attending courses accredited by NNA will be recognised and valued across healthcare institutions, as they progress or move into different care settings in their career, be it from the acute to community care sector, or vice versa.

Eventually, as NNA grows the repertoire of courses it accredits, including workplace-based courses or programmes, nurses from all healthcare settings can have increased access to programmes and courses that may otherwise not be available within their own healthcare institutions.

Nurse educator manpower can also be streamlined as courses need not be duplicated unnecessarily. Where courses are in demand, course providers can better target their educational programmes to meet the demands accordingly.

Yes, programmes and courses accredited by NNA will be recognised by local healthcare institutions and settings. The portability of the programmes and courses across settings will be guided by competency frameworks that will set job role expectations, and competencies specific to different roles of nurses in various healthcare settings.

NNA will help employers to

• set job role expectations specific to different roles of their nurses

• identify professional capabilities development gaps of their nurses

• plan nursing educational activities and experiences for nurses beyond their pre-registration academic preparation and guide their nurses in making informed choices when they pursue their continuing professional education.

• keep nurses under their employment informed on current trends, practices, and the latest treatments in healthcare.

• foster a culture of continuing education and professional development among their nurses.

Course providers, including Institutes of Higher Learning, may identify learning gaps and develop programmes and courses to address these gaps. They may also refer to the NNA’s Standards for Workplace-based Nursing Education [PDF, 155 KB] ↗ (opens in new tab) and Accreditation Guidelines for Workplace-based Nursing Education [PDF, 902 KB] ↗ (opens in new tab) when applying for their programmes and courses to be accredited.