http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/2012/02/02/too-many-nurses-chasing-too-few-jobs Too many nurses chasing too few jobs Teoh El Sen February 2, 2012
There are too many nurses being trained and too few jobs for them, and PSM says the fault lies with the government's poor planning for nurse intake for private institutions. PETALING JAYA: Is the government simply incompetent when it comes to the glut of nurses or are the Health Ministry and Higher Education Ministry officers on the take? Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) feels that there is more than meets the eye and it is suspicious that private colleges are greasing the palms of these officers. Yearly, private colleges are producing about 12,000 fully trained nurses but there are only 1,000 to 1,500 nursing jobs in the private sector each year, according to PSM central committee member and Sungai Siput MP Dr D Michael Jeyakumar. Jeyakumar said figures given to him in Parliament showed that in 2010, some 5,000 out of 7,500 nursing graduates could not find jobs as nurses and ended up working at other sectors or were jobless. There are currently more than 37,500 nursing undergraduates enrolled in 61 private institutes teaching nursing. Other nurses are trained in public institutions. Jeyakumar said PSM has, over the past couple of years, received dozens of complaints from graduate nurses and their parents, higlighting this issue. Many of these girls cant get jobs as nurses so they work as salesgirls, clerks, and receptionists, which may pay maybe RM800 when a staff nurse is supposed to get RM1,800 a month, he said. He said with such difficulty finding a nursing job, many are unable to repay their PTPTN (National Higher Education Fund Corporation) loans, and he asked the government to waive those loans. You have to forfeit the loan; if they cant afford a job, how can you ask them to pay? Jeyakumar pinned the blame on the problems on the government officials from both the Health and Higher Education Ministries. The governments regulation of private colleges giving nursing courses is very, very disappointing. The Higher Education Ministry and the Health Ministry are both involved. They are not doing their jobs properly and now we have a gross oversupply of nurses, some poorly trained who are unable to find jobs. Big Scandal, Big Weakness He said the Health Ministry was the one that allowed private colleges large quotas for their nurse intakes. The Higher Education Ministry, on the other hand, was the one that regulates the institutions and gives out licences. It is a big scandal and big weakness in the system. We are saying the whole thing is a mess. We want the government to tell us whether it is incompetence or is it because the private colleges are giving financial inducement to officers in the Health Ministry? I want them to check as there are only either of these two possibilities, said Jeyakumar. Jeyakumar said that sources within the nursing colleges indicate that the profit margin for nursing courses was about 50%. So for a typical three-year diploma course costing RM55,000, the private college can get more than RM25,000. This goes into the hundreds of millions in profits, there is huge money there (RM25,000 x 12,000= RM 300 million), he said. Jeyakumar said the problem was the weak structure that is influenced strongly by financial inducements. He added that in the whole scheme of things, only the owners and shareholders of the colleges profit. Obviously profit seems to be the main objective here. We want the public, the parents of those after SPM, to know. We dont want another 10,000 cheated again in future years, he said. The government now should cut down and freeze the intake into the private sector, said Jeyakumar, who also called on the government to review its quotas and licensing. In April 2010, The Star quoted Higher Education Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin as saying that the government was stopping more colleges from having nursing courses to prevent an oversupply of nurses and other problems arising from graduate unemployment. There will be no more private institutions providing nursing courses as we are already on the right track to achieve the recommended World Health Organisation nurse to population ratio of 1:200, he was quoted as saying. On Dec 13 last year, PSM handed over a memorandum to the Higher Education Minister on the issue, but claimed that there has been no active feedback so far. ==================== Jobs in nursing hard to come by for graduates http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/2/3/nation/10667498&sec=nation PETALING JAYA: It is difficult not only for diploma graduates but also degree-holders to get a job in nursing. Some have ended up becoming insurance agents, tuition teachers and sales assistants while others are involved in part-time businesses as they wait for a nursing vacancy to open. Hartini Haron, 25, from Sabah, said she graduated one-and-a-half years ago with a nursing degree from a public university but had yet to get a job in the field even though she had sent in countless applications. I am disappointed with the whole situation. We studied for four years and now, we cant even get a job, she said. A few of her friends got a nursing job almost a year after completing their studies, said Hartini, who does whatever part-time work that she can get. Hartini said new graduates with no working experience as a nurse found it tough competing with graduate nurses who had working experience. Nurses from the Health Ministry who continued their studies for a degree were easily absorbed into the system, she added. Another public university nursing graduate, Khairun Nisa Mohammad, 25, from Ampang said she received an offer from a private hospital after nine months of unemployment. The Government must provide job opportunities. If not, why did they provide nursing courses? she asked, adding that only one of her course mates got a job as a lecturer with the Health Ministry. Before getting her current job, Khairun Nisa said she worked as an assistant merchandiser. Some of my Chinese friends have become nurses in Singapore, she said. She said only two of her 30-odd classmates got jobs as nursing lecturers with the Health Ministry while the rest had not been able to get a nursing job and worked as sales assistants, insurance agents and tuition teachers. Sofia Yusof, 25, who completed her nursing degree in July 2010, said she accepted a nursing job in March last year at a private hospital in Johor but was being paid according to the salary scale for diploma holders She added that she could not get a nursing job via the Public Services Commission. I have to support my parents who are old and pay for my study and car loans, she said. Another graduate who wanted to be known only as Nooraniza, 25, from Johor, said she had sent her applications to the commission, but there was no vacancy at the moment. Desperate for a job, she accepted a nursing job at a private hospital which was only willing to pay a diploma scheme salary. I took up the job because I didnt want to burden my father, said Nooraniza, whose father is a crane driver. S. Gnanapragasam, 62, said his 22-year-old daughter and several of his friends children were having difficulty getting nursing jobs after completing their diploma courses. He added: They spent several years studying and in the end, they are struggling to find jobs. My daughter finally found a job but she is not doing what she was trained to do. COMMENT: Instead of just listening to the opinion of Socialists fikrah and spreading them, we muslims whether in medical profession or not should be looking for a solution. Many nurses, doctors, pharmacists, dentists should be a rahmah and not a bala'. It is the Capitalist system that deprive people of jobs and not the fault of colleges or schools. This challenge should be taken by the muslim network. Many poor people are being deprived from healthcare. Any muslim organisation can organise special training and deploy the 'jobless' to earn a good living by helping the poor and needy. It can surely be done Insyallah. The government (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Higher Education) cannot be blamed for what private institutions of higher learning train. Being private enterprises they will surely go for maximum intake of trainees. Those going for courses in order to get jobs will have to do their own homework on their chances of employability. On the other hand why not our extra nurses go find jobs in neighbouring countries, like foreign maids and general workers who come to our shores from ASEAN/Asian region? It is unbecoming to want to raise all sorts of issues in the hope of gaining influence..political or otherwise. ------------------------------------ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ JIMedia: Memurnikan Tanggapan Umum Melalui Penyebaran Ilmu dan Maklumat ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Nota: Kandungan mel ini tidak menggambarkan pendirian rasmi Pertubuhan Jamaah Islah Malaysia (JIM) melainkan yang dinyatakan sedemikian. 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