The scholarships are part of SingHealth's plans to help nurses upgrade their knowledge and skills, said Professor Tan Ser Kiat, chief executive officer of the SingHealth Group, on Monday. SingHealth aims to promote leadership qualities in nurses and help them keep up with rapid advances in medical technology, he added.

Funds for the awards come from a $10 million donation by the Lee Foundation last July in support of SingHealth's programmes to develop nurses' skills.

Formerly known as the Singapore General Hospital Institute of Advanced Nursing, the institute was re- named in honour of the late Alice Lee, wife of philanthropist Lee Kong Chian and mother of Mr Lee Seng Gee, who runs the Lee Foundation.

Last week, the foundation donated $30 million to the Faculty of Medicine at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Of this, $10 million will be used to fund its first full-time undergraduate nursing degree programme.

SingHealth plans to use $2 million of its grant for 12 nursing scholarships - six for bachelor's degrees, four for master's and two for doctorates. The rest will go towards developing nursing education through the Alice Lee institute, located at SingHealth's Outram campus.

Application for the scholarships will close by the end of this month and recipients will be announced in about a month.

One applicant is Ms Tracy Carol Ayre, assistant director of nursing at Singapore General Hospital (SGH). The 37-year-old holds a master of science degree in nursing (clinical research management) from the University of California, San Francisco, and hopes to pursue a PhD in nursing at Melbourne University.

Ms Ayre, a nurse for 15 years, said her educators in university inspired her to study further. At SGH, she oversees the obstetrics and gynaecology, ear-nose-throat and urology wards.

Ms Ayre, who is single and a part-time teacher of nursing on the NUS master's degree course, said: 'I am doing this for my own personal development... I hope to impart my knowledge to the future generation of nurses.'