The Use of Healthcare Assistant for Peritoneal Dialysis Care
Workforce Transformation
National Healthcare Innovation and Productivity Medals
National Healthcare Group
27 January 2026
This project explored the possibility of having healthcare support staff, namely Healthcare Assistant (HCA), to perform PD. Our project has shown that healthcare support staff, like HCAs, can perform certain simple and non-invasive PD procedures while.
Year Submitted: 2025
Published Date: 27 January 2026
Tags: Workforce Transformation, Upskilling, Job Redesign
About this Content
Aims
This project explored the possibility of having healthcare support staff, namely Healthcare Assistant (HCA), to perform PD procedures in hospital setting.
Background
Kidney failure is a major health challenge across the world. The Ministry of Health Singapore has been working with hospitals to recommend Peritoneal Dialysis (PD) as the preferred dialysis option for patients with kidney failure. PD is a home-based treatment, non-invasive, simple but time-consuming. However, when patients required PD admitted to hospitals, the PD procedures are commonly set to be performed by PD trained nurses only. Therefore, nursing manpower shortage often limits the growth of PD uptake.
Methods
A project of using a trained HCA to perform PD procedures was implemented in Renal Centre, Khoo Teck Puat hospital (KTPH) between June 2023 to November 2023. One Senior HCA from Woodlands Health (WH) was selected and trained by KTPH Renal Centre PD nurses to provide certain PD procedures, namely PD exchanges and PD catheter exit site dressing. After the completion of skill-based competency assessment and On-Job-Training, the trained HCA started performing the trained PD procedures for KTPH inpatients under the supervision of KTPH PD nurses.
Results
Results had shown that no difference between Renal Centre Nurses performed PD vs HCA performed PD in terms of PD related infections for inpatients during the project period. Furthermore, Trained HCA is equipped with higher and broader PD competencies, for better career progression track and job satisfaction (potentially).
Conclusion
Our project has shown that healthcare support staff, like HCAs, can perform certain simple and non-invasive PD procedures while maintaining quality nursing care for inpatients required PD. By reducing the dependency of nursing manpower for PD services, while maintaining quality nursing care, this project will help hospitals to achieve higher PD uptake amongst new dialysis patients in Singapore.
Lessons Learnt
The project team believes that PD related infections may happen when proper hand hygiene and infection control practice are not strictly followed by any group of healthcare workers during PD procedures. The assumption of nurses having higher compliance, compared to trained Healthcare Assists, in terms of hand hygiene and infection control practice, is not verified. The project team has implemented solutions to address the concerns, including identifying suitable candidates, providing sufficient training, on-site nursing support, and establishing clinical governance.
Keywords
Peritoneal Dialysis, Healthcare Assistant, Upskilling, Nursing Care
Innovators' Details
Innovators' Details
Healthcare Cluster(s) | National Healthcare Group |
Organization(s) Involved | Khoo Teck Puat Hospital, Woodlands Health |
Platform(s) | National Healthcare Innovation and Productivity Medals |
Healthcare Professional Group(s) | Nursing |
Applicable Specialty or Discipline | Nursing |
Project Lead(s) | Si Chanjuan |
Project Member(s) | Tan Si Hui |
Connect with this contributor!
Si Chanjuan - si.chanjuan@ktph.com.sg