Sign-on bonus for fresh local nursing graduates joining public healthcare sector in 2023

SINGAPORE - Local nursing students who graduate in 2023 and join the public healthcare sector will be eligible for a sign-on bonus of $15,000, as part of efforts to strengthen the hiring of nurses here.

The bonus will be paid out over two years, in three tranches of $5,000 each, with the first given at the start of employment, while the remaining two will be paid at the end of the first and second years of service.

This will apply to all fresh nursing graduates from local polytechnics and universities who enter nursing in the public healthcare clusters, or publicly funded residential community care organisations such as nursing homes.

Those who graduated from the Institute of Technical Education’s nursing programme in December 2022 and join nursing in 2023 will also be eligible.

The bonus, however, does not apply to those who have already taken up a sponsorship or scholarship package.

Health Minister Ong Ye Kung said the bonus will be backdated to allow those who joined from January 2023 to benefit.

This is part of efforts

to intensify the hiring of local nurses,

he said, announcing the measure during the Nurses’ Merit Award ceremony at the Orchard Hotel on Wednesday.

While one in 25 students at local institutes of higher learning take up nursing, as many as one-third of nursing graduates join other sectors, said Mr Ong.

“If we are faster in encouraging our nursing graduates to join the healthcare workforce, it will address our manpower needs significantly,” he said.

Mr Ong noted that the public healthcare clusters have recently enhanced their sponsorship packages for nursing students, with the packages now covering at least half of a student’s tuition fees as well as allowances during their training.

This is to encourage more of them to make early decisions to join the sector before graduating, he said.

“But this being an exceptional post-Covid-19 crisis year, we should try to encourage more of our fresh local nursing graduates to take up a nursing career,” said Mr Ong, explaining the need to introduce a sign-on bonus.

More will also be done to retain existing nurses, he said.

Attrition of nurses shot up

to about 10 per cent a year during the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Ong said, attributing this to the poaching of foreign nurses here by other countries.

However, 2023 has seen annual attrition drop to pre-pandemic levels of about 5 per cent to 7 per cent, he said.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) will continue to work with the healthcare clusters to review the salary package of nurses on a regular basis, Mr Ong said.

The Straits Times reported in 2022 that entry-level registered nurses here

earn a base salary of between $3,300 and $5,200 a month.

Mr Ong added that remuneration can also be enhanced in ways other than a salary revision, pointing to retention schemes offered by the Singapore Armed Forces and the education service.

These serve to enhance the remuneration package as well as encourage officers to stay long enough to build a career, he said.

“MOH is therefore working on a long-term retention scheme for our nurses in our public healthcare sector,” Mr Ong said, adding that more details on the scheme will be shared in the coming few months.