Look into plight of the jobless nursing grads
Published on: Sunday, February 19, 2012
By: Kangku Da'a
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For me, this news is alarming as there are few private nursing colleges in Sabah at the moment.
I have my sister and several nieces studying at some private nursing college around Kota Kinabalu.
Browsing through official portal of Nursing Division Ministry of Health Malaysia, there are 51 private colleges and Ministry of Health nursing institutions listed with them. From the list, the students graduating from nursing colleges should reach thousands every year.
What is the yearly requirement?
As according to Dr Micheal, the requirement is only 1,500 new nurses a year. If 10,000 nurses graduated in 2011, where will the 8,500 go?
They have to look for another job that does not match their qualification.
Some of them might end up as clerks or cashiers.
On the other hand, it's not easy for nursing graduates from private colleges to enter government hospitals as the Government also have their own supply from their nursing institutions.
My major concern is towards unemployed graduates.
From my observation, many of the nursing college students are young girls. How are they going to pay the PTPTN loan given to them?
A diploma in nursing needs at least RM50,000 to RM60,000 for a three-year course.
This high amount will be problem to those graduates who are unemployed or working with low pay (working with another sector).
Those defaulters risk being blacklisted and, worst, bankruptcy.
It also will become a burden to the family if the student is from a low income family.
I agree to the memorandum forwarded by Dr Micheal that the intake of new nurses should be frozen, and control the passing mark for Nursing Board Examination.
If the Government does not take any action, our job market will be flooded with unemployed nursing graduates.
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