A Singapore Bioethics Casebook, 2017 – Caring for Older People in an Ageing Society

The Singapore Bioethics Casebook Project at the NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine is a free and open-access online casebook for continuing professional education in the ethics of healthcare and social care.

The 2017 Edition comprises 10 teaching and learning cases on Caring for Older People in an Ageing Society, and 12 cases on Making Difficult Decisions with Patients and Families. Each case is supported by expert commentaries highlighting ethical issues and a practice perspective by a professional in healthcare or social care offering practical insight. Additional support is provided by informational backgrounders, questions for reflection, and further online resources.

The characters that appear in the Casebook are fictitious and modelled for teaching and learning purposes on the basis of common encounters described by healthcare and social care professionals, and do not refer to specific, real individuals, living or dead. Any individuals appearing in photographs depicting these characters bear no relationship or connection whatsoever to the stories ascribed to those characters.

Are you a Care Professional?

If you are a care professional in Singapore, this casebook was written for you.

This casebook aims to support you in your practice, by helping you to recognise and respond to situations in your work that may feature ethical uncertainty, in which it is unclear how to ‘do the right thing’. It has been developed by physicians and other healthcare and community care professionals, with support from ethics and legal scholars in Singapore and other countries. It aims to reflect the reality of providing care in Singapore today.

Whether you choose to read the entire casebook, or prefer to focus on topics of special interest, you will discover fresh ways to think about ethically challenging situations, to work in collaboration with patients, families, and colleagues, and to reflect on your own practice.

Twenty-Two Cases

The casebook includes 22 cases that cover a range of issues across different care settings – in both the hospital and the community settings. Each case features a ‘difficult decision’ typical of those that doctors and other healthcare professionals encounter in practice in Singapore. Each case is followed by a few questions for reflection, to help you think about the ethically challenging issues presented in a case and how they relate to your own experience.

Two commentaries on each case offer perspectives from ethics and legal scholars, and provide practical guidance for care professionals. A practitioner perspective on each case, written by a leading physician or care professional, offers additional insights from practice.

Backgrounders, Glossary and Others

The casebook also includes five backgrounders, which provide information about the legal, policy, and social contexts of healthcare in Singapore. Several backgrounders focus on practical skills building, such as communicating effectively with patients, families, and paid caregivers. A glossary, a list of web-based resources, and suggested readings, and features such as links and hover boxes, provide additional support.

Not a Healthcare Professional?

If you are not a care professional in Singapore, but are interested in these issues, this casebook can also be useful to you. It will be helpful for patient and client education, e.g. advance care planning workshop, to guide role play exercises where ethical understanding is relevant. The casebook also offers insights into the practical realities of care work to anyone with a professional or academic interest in health and care in Singapore, e.g. a healthcare manager or a lawyer interested in health law.