The message from fellow healthcare workers on Facebook - "We stay at work, you stay at home for us" - has struck me immensely.

As a trained nurse who switched fields seven years ago, a sense of duty has been reignited. What is a plausible avenue for me to work alongside my former nursing comrades again?

Unlike conventional warfare, where military forces have adequate time to ramp up for the war campaign against an adversary, Covid-19 is an invisible, ominous and elusive enemy that rages relentlessly and knows no international boundaries. This calls for a more collective and targeted approach in the pandemic response.

Unfortunately, many healthcare systems across the world are lacking in reserves; a pandemic can easily overwhelm available resources and cripple operating capacity.

A strategy of mobilising, training and sustaining manpower resources, like that for the national defence system, can be considered. It may be prudent to leverage Singapore-based qualified nurses who are no longer in the industry and may benefit from some form of refresher training to ramp up their readiness and competencies.

Multiple agencies will need to work together to define their terms of employment, currency and training for this group of "part-time troops". It may be tedious to administer and sustain, but this is a worthwhile effort that will allow those who were once nurses to contribute when the need arises.

Let us stand united and answer our calling as nurses and Singaporeans.

Loh Ying Bei