This is what I call ” Foot in the Mouth” syndrome. The nurses issue made the headline today in the Star. I still remember about less than 10 years ago, the headline was ” Shortage of Nurses”. Then came the euphoria of private nursing colleges mushrooming in every corner of the country.
As usual our Health Minister does not seem to know what he is talking about. There are 2 group of nurses: the diploma holders and the post basic nurses. All nursing colleges including private and government funded only produce diploma holders and they are known as staff nurses!! Only after they complete their basic nursing board certification, they can apply for post basic training to become specialise nurses in maternity, cardiac, neuro, ICU etc. There is no such thing as specialised training at diploma level even before they can become staff nurses. ALL of them only undergo “general” training”.
So, in order for them to undergo specialise training, they need to get a job in the first place. So, what the hell is the MOH talking about. The short term knee jerk reaction will be to promote some nurses to higher level which is vacant and creat more vacancy at the lower level. Again, this will not be enough to absorb all, as the MOH nursing graduates themselves is more than enough to fill up this post at the moment.
And they are also blamming the private colleges now! I mean, who the hell in the first place approved all these coleges to produce such a large number of nurses, majority of substandard quality? The private colleges are here to make money/profit and not for some social service. This is a well known fact! The same situation is also happening to radiographers, physiotherapist, dispensers etc. Can MOH kindly look into this as well.
Gosh, probably 3-5 years from now, I will writing the same thing as above again, but for doctors!! At least the nurses have Nursing Board examination for quality control!
Mismatch between training and market needs for specialised nurses
PUTRAJAYA: The number of jobless nursing graduates has reached such a state that Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai has ticked off private institutions of higher learning for not being in touch with market demand.
The institutions, he said, were the cause of the surplus as they have not delivered on the areas of expertise needed and thus created a mismatch between training and market needs.
Most of the private nursing colleges are offering mere “general training”, which did not cater to the private sector’s requirement for specialised nurses, he said.
Among the measures to rectify the problem:
> The Government to work on creating vacancies at public hospitals.
>The Malaysian Society for Healthcare Delivery wants a system to monitor the quality of nursing graduates.
Health Ministry to hire graduate nurses
By JOSEPH SIPALAN jsipalan@thestar.com.my
PUTRAJAYA: The Health Ministry is working on creating vacancies at government hospitals to absorb the large number of unemployed graduate nurses.
Health Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai said a special committee, led by Health director-general Datuk Seri Dr Hasan Abdul Rahman, had been set up to find a solution to the issue.
“We are working on a programme to promote those who are already in the system and the vacancies can then be filled up by the graduates,” he said yesterday.
Liow pointed out that the proposed programme aimed to train the current crop of nurses to specialise in one of the many fields in government hospitals and in the process, create vacancies in lower-level positions.
In the long run, however, he said private institutions of higher learning would need to streamline their syllabus to match the demands of the local health industry.
Over the past week, The Star ran several reports highlighting the difficulty faced by nursing graduates from private institutes in finding jobs.
A government study found that over 54% of private nursing diploma graduates could not find work three to four months after graduating in 2010, compared to 21.7% in 2008.
Liow said the main factor leading to the surplus of nursing graduates was that private institutes appeared to not be in touch with the areas of expertise that were in demand.
He said the Government currently runs around 30 colleges, whose graduates are trained to meet the needs of public hospitals.
On the other hand, most of the estimated 70 private nursing colleges nationwide were providing general training and in many cases, did not meet private sector demand for specialised nurses.
“We are not looking at it as a surplus. We do need nurses, and so does the private sector because it is also expanding.
“This is mostly an issue of a mismatch between training and market demand. However, we do not control the numbers (of student intake) in private colleges.
“This is something we will have to work out with the Higher Education Ministry, and hopefully all of this (syllabus and market demand) will be streamlined,” he said.
Liow did not give a deadline for the committee to find a solution, saying that it had only just been formed and held its first meeting recently
‘System needed to monitor quality of nursing grads’
PETALING JAYA: A comprehensive system is needed to monitor the quality of nursing graduates and ensure they remain competent years after, a non-governmental organisation said.
Malaysian Society for Healthcare Delivery president Vimala Suppiah expressed worry that quality levels could be affected given the high number of nursing graduates being churned out at some private institutions.
“Nursing is a technical job. We do not know if they are getting proper practical work training.
“Staff nurses and matrons have complained of poor quality nursing graduates,” she said.
The number of private nursing diploma graduates, who took the Nursing Board examination, had increased from 4,025 in 2008 to 7,665 in 2010 but the passing percentage had decreased from 86.5% to 70.1% for the same period.
However, Health Ministry and public institution graduates had a passing percentage of between 94% and 99%.
The high number of private nursing graduates has resulted in many finding it difficult to get jobs, especially given the limited number of positions available in the private and government sector.
According to government statistics, a total of 37,702 students were enrolled in nursing diploma courses in 61 private institutions of higher learning (IPTS) in 2010.
As at December 2010, the total number of trained working nurses in the country stood at 61,110 with 21,118 working in the private sector.
A check with several IPTS showed that it was easy to enrol for a three-year nursing diploma programme even if the student did not have credits in all Science subjects.
Pagalavan's Avatar 
Sometime, it is the nurse problem. The are too picky…..blame themselves. Liow also underestimate the true problem. I think he is not suitable to be health minister.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/2/6/focus/10682993&sec=focus
I think the whole blame should go to MOHE! Can’t really blame the MOH who is at the receiving end. However, Liow is talking nonsense!
Malaysian system is always popular in creating a mess…
Indoesian maids first…demand; overflow with even malaysian workers employ main to run the house; then no maid finally
next nurses
paramedical workers
finally doctors
Malaysia never learns, will never learn and are very short sighted
when we end up with a case like anwar Ibrahim… trying to determine whose sperm is found where? or even in case like Teoh Ben Hock, how he strangles himself as shown by the AG during the trial and in both cases were needed forensic experts from Australia and Thailand respectively….. what happened to our specialists……
we are moving backwards… we are no just clowns but ARE SUBSTANDARD CLOWNS Whose jokes are not laughable but one tends to cry after a latent period of 3 – 5 yrs; because no one will believe what is said….It is like a Volcano errupting in front of you
so MALAYSIA BOLEH AND ALL the best ……………..
[…] colleges are producing general training nurses and not specialized nurses which we are short of”: https://pagalavan.com/2012/02/07/clown-of-the-year-award-part-3/. I thought that was bad enough for a health minister to say but today’s comment by him really […]