​LKCMedicine PGY1 doctors win NHG Teaching Awards 

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They may be small in number but big in performance.

The Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (LKCMedicine) has graduated only one batch of doctors. Despite the small cohort size – just 52 of them - this pioneer batch has done the School proud. Four of the 10 awards (that's 40 per cent!) at this year's National Healthcare Group (NHG) Teaching Awards in the Postgraduate Year 1 (PGY1) category are clinched by the LKCMedicine graduates. All PGY1s from Singapore's three medical schools, more than 300 of them, contended for the annual awards.

The winners are recognised for their contributions in coaching and mentoring medical students, in addition to their primary focus of delivering patient care.

This first class of LKCMedicine graduates are now at the tail end of their PGY1 with various hospitals. The School has also been receiving positive feedback on their performance over the past year. These awards are a testimony of the good work that they have turned in.

The awardees are chosen based on voting by medical students whom they had guided and mentored during their postings in Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH) and Khoo Teck Puat (KTPH) Hospital.

Dr Tan Xuan Hao and Dr Joseph Wong Say Wei were voted "Outstanding" for KTPH, while Dr Jean Chiew and Dr Joey Wong were "Highly Commended" for TTSH. All Outstanding and Highly Commended awardees will receive an award certificate and book vouchers.

One of the comments received regarding Dr Tan was "how he truly embodied the idea of mentorship to his juniors who were just starting on their clinical journey. Whenever there is a good case that he was managing, he never failed to inform his juniors. He would go through cases with us and provide extremely constructive feedback on our examination and presentation techniques. Dr Tan was also always proactive and ensured that the students under his care were not overly stressed out during their clinical journey and offered a listening ear whenever we needed one".

Dr Joseph Wong was praised as "an excellent teacher who was dedicated to setting aside time to tutor the students".

Likewise for Dr Jean Chiew Ling who would "spend much time and effort to teach the students practical details of being a competent House Officer". Whenever possible, she would take the students for quick bedside tutorials and "make the effort to explain concepts and their fundamentals well".

The medical students under Dr Joey Wong were impressed that "he actively offered to teach us from the first time he met us in Singapore General Hospital. Even after he was rotated to TTSH, he still took the initiative to teach us despite his own busy schedule".

Associate Professor Tham Kum Ying, Assistant Dean for Year 5 at LKCMedicine and Subject Lead for Emergency Medicine, is extremely proud of the pioneer batch. "The PGY1 awards are especially significant because these are young doctors in their first year of work. They themselves are busy learning many new things that are part of a PGY1's daily work. The fact that they took the time to teach and supervise the medical students reflects their dedication and willingness to share. Such positive qualities are highly commendable and hopefully will blossom with time and more opportunities," she said.

The awards will be presented during the PGY1 Orientation on 22 April at TTSH and KTPH. With these awards, NHG hopes to encourage the new PGY1s to also teach and guide their juniors just like how their seniors had imparted their knowledge and skills to them when they were medical students.