EduAsiaNews, Singapura – Associate Professor Zhou Wentao, Deputy Head (Postgraduate Programmes) and Director of the Master of Nursing programme at the Alice Lee Centre for Nursing Studies, NUS Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, has been conferred the prestigious President’s Award for Nurses 2026.
The award is the highest accolade in Singapore’s nursing profession. Launched in 2000, it celebrates nurses who have shown outstanding performance and contributions to patient care delivery, education, research and administration.
For Assoc Prof Zhou, the award reflects nearly three decades of unwavering dedication that has spanned clinical practice, education, research and healthcare leadership. Beyond caring for patients as an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) at the National Neuroscience Institute, she has been instrumental in fundamentally shaping how Singapore develops its APN workforce, strengthening the profession’s global standing.
Since helming the Master of Nursing programme as its Director in 2015, Assoc Prof Zhou has spearheaded three major curriculum reforms to better equip APNs for increasingly complex healthcare needs. Among these included the restructuring of the full-time programme from 24 to 18 months, enabling nurses to return to clinical practice sooner while maintaining rigorous competency standards. In 2025, she established Singapore’s first Doctor of Nursing Practice programme to prepare experienced nurses to lead transformative change in healthcare through evidence-based practice, innovation and system-level leadership.
Driving national nursing advancement
Beyond NUS, Assoc Prof Zhou has contributed significantly to nursing development nationwide. She championed the implementation of nine Entrustable Professional Activities for APNs across all eight public hospitals, establishing a more consistent national standard for training of APNs and their transition to practice. As the Educational Lead of the Ministry of Health’s Advanced Nurse Practice Development Committee, she also helped to strengthen the National Collaborative Prescribing Programme, supported the credentialling of more than 300 APN prescribers and improved timely access to care. In addition, she established the APN Chapter under the Singapore Nurses Association to create a national professional network where APNs can learn from one another and collectively advance nursing practice.
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Assoc Prof Zhou preparing experienced nurses to transform healthcare in Singapore’s first Doctor of Nursing Practice programme in NUS.
Global leadership and impact
On the international stage, Assoc Prof Zhou has been a driving force in global efforts to strengthen advanced practice nursing education, research and professional practice through leadership roles in the International Council of Nurses (ICN). She served as Co-Chair of the ICN Nurse Practitioner/Advanced Practice Nurse Network Research Subgroup from 2018 to 2022 before being elected Treasurer of the Network in 2022. Working alongside international nursing leaders, she contributed to the development of multinational publications and book chapters that continue to inform APN education and policy internationally, such as the ICN’s Guidelines on Advanced Practice Nursing (2020) and Guidelines on Prescriptive Authority for Nurses (2021). As ICN’s treasurer, she leads its financial governance and sustainability, actively supporting initiatives to expand the participation of nurses from low- and middle-income countries through fundraising efforts. She also collaborates with hospitals, universities and nursing leaders across Asia to strengthen APN education and mentor future nursing leaders.
Assoc Prof Zhou said, “I am deeply honoured and humbled to receive the President’s Award for Nurses. Although my work has expanded into education, policy and international collaboration, my patients continue to remind me why all of this matters. Every patient encounter reinforces the importance of preparing nurses, strengthening healthcare systems and shaping policies that ultimately improve care. I am also grateful for the opportunity to share Singapore’s advanced practice nursing journey internationally. We have built our model through years of collaboration across government, healthcare institutions, universities and the nursing profession, and it is rewarding to see other countries learning from our experience as they develop advanced nursing roles to better serve their own patients and communities.”
Charting the future of nursing
Looking ahead, Assoc Prof Zhou hopes to continue strengthening Singapore’s nursing workforce by preparing the next generation of nurses to take on greater leadership roles in healthcare transformation through the NUS Doctor of Nursing Practice programme. She also aims to deepen international collaborations, enabling countries to learn from one another while contributing Singapore’s experience to the continued advancement of advanced practice nursing globally.
