Continuing Education

SNEC Training & Education Department

The Training & Education (T&E) Department was formally established on 1 January 2000 to coordinate medical, nursing and allied health ophthalmic training in SNEC. Medical ophthalmic training spans the entire continuum from undergraduate through residency and later fellowship training.

Education is one of three pillars in SNEC. The launch of the academic clinical programme in Ophthalmology (EYE ACP) has further strengthened our education programmes. Beyond teaching, we look to focus on education research and faculty development. The department works closely with Academic Medicine Education Institute (AMEI) to share educational best practices and provide faculty with opportunities to learn new pedagogies that benefit both learners and teachers.

One of the department’s primary aims is to centralise and coordinate all undergraduate and postgraduate ophthalmic medical training in SNEC as well as to provide continuing medical education for ophthalmologists and clinicians in general.

The department coordinates all teaching activities involving SNEC, e.g. CME lectures, subspecialty courses, workshops for general practitioners, joint meetings with overseas institution, nursing and paramedical training courses.

The Nursing and Allied Health training programmes such as Ophthalmic Assistant (OA) and Ophthalmic Technician (OT) courses were awarded the JACAPO accreditation for excellence. Attendees to these courses are awarded a joint certificate with Duke-NUS for their training. Recently, SNEC has signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with IJCAHPO to be the regional examination and certification centre.

SNEC strives to enhance the Allied Ophthalmic personnel (AOP) education and enable the development of AOPs in the region. We have developed a postgraduate nursing programme for ophthalmic nurses in partnership with Curtin University, Australia. We also provide short courses to equip healthcare assistants in nursing homes and day care centres with basic eye care management skills training in partnership with Agency of Integrated care (AIC). With increasing healthcare demand, we need to enhance team-based care. We are working to promote inter-professional education (IPE) and upskill our nursing and allied health workforce through various competency-based training programmes.

Undergraduate Ophthalmic Training

International Fellowship, Undergraduate and Postgraduate observership
The department coordinates all clinical fellowship programmes in SNEC. We offer six-month to one-year fellowship positions in the various subspecialties. We also coordinate the activities of medical students during their ophthalmic rotation from the NUS-YLL and Duke-NUS Medical Schools and provide observership at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Due to limited space, it will be subject to availability and on a first-come-first-served basis.

We work with the Asia Pacific Association of Ophthalmologists (APAO), Fred Hollows Foundation and Commonwealth Eye Consortium under Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Fund (QEDJF) to offer fellowships in SNEC for selected specialties. As part of the review of fellowships, SNEC will adopt ICO-based fellowship guidelines to improve the quality of our fellowship programmes.

Our aim is to provide the most comprehensive training appropriate for whichever level training a learner joins us.

New Residency Programme
The training of ophthalmologists in Singapore took a change in July 2011. We embarked on the new residency programme that is guided by the principles of Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education International (ACGME-I).

The revised training programme provides residents with more structured learning incorporating better supervision. The entire residency programme consists of three initial years of training, which helps to build the foundation in ophthalmology, as well as two senior years in which the residents can practise their general ophthalmology skills. Residents are provided with ample opportunities to learn from our very large faculty which covers all aspects of ophthalmology subspecialty. SNEC is very well equipped with our own diagnostic and treatment facilities in house.

If you have an interest in any of the undergraduate or postgraduate observership, residency or fellowship programme, please contact us at trainingandeducation@snec.com.sg.

Alternatively, you can send your request to:

Training & Education Department Singapore National Eye Centre 11 Third Hospital Avenue Singapore 168751

SNEC Education Programme
Continuing education and training will be key in steering SNEC into its next phase of development. As such, our relentless pursuit of training and education is one of the pillars of our strength. The width and depth of our teaching programmes attest to the fact that we are the main providers of ophthalmic training opportunities in Singapore and the region.

Through active participation and hands-on training, our consultant-based teaching is the backbone of continuing medical education. This has proved to be a very effective mentoring system for our specialists undergoing training.

We believe that if you perform a good eye operation, you restore vision to one man. But if you spread the knowledge of good quality eye surgery to your colleagues, they will ultimately restore vision to millions in their country.

When we teach, we learn.