MP asks if there is an over-supply of graduate nurses and wants the Health Ministry to review its intake programmes for traineesTAWAU: The Health Ministry must explain the high unemployment among the government-trained nurses in Sabah, Tawau MP Chua Soon Bui said.
She said she was shocked and upset to receive complaints from the parents of trained nurses who were finding it difficult to gain placement in government hospitals in the state.
"They were even told to seek jobs in private hospitals and clinics," she told a news conference here yesterday.
"Many of these unemployed trained nurses are from the interior of Sabah, especially in the rural areas in Tawau," she said, explaining why the parents of these nurses had come to her.
She said the recent statement by Abu Bakar Othman, senior deputy director of the State Management Training Unit (Federal Health Department), that the appointment or recruitment of nursing trainees depended on their personal excellence and achievement, was insulting to those nurses who have graduated from the government nurses training colleges, the Tawau Nursing Community College in particular.
Abu Bakar was reported to have said this while launching the occupational safety and health campaign at Tawau Nursing Community College, recently.
"Does this mean that our nursing college graduates are not up to the mark and thus are not employable, or is there an over-supply situation in Sabah?" she asked.
Graduates struggling to service loans
Chua, who is a vice-president of Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP), said if that is the rationale behind the current high unemployment rate among government-trained nurses, then the Health Ministry must review its intake programmes for trainee nurses.
She noted that many young Sabah girls who had failed to enrol into the government-run community nursing training colleges were forced to enrol in private nursing training colleges.
Chua said many of the nursing college graduates were from the poor families and are now struggling to service the loans they have taken to fund their training at these private nursing training colleges.
"Their parents are now in debt while they are unemployed. This is a serious matter in our community now," she said.
She warned that if the ministry or department concerned failed to address the issue, the already high unemployment rate among the youths in the state would steadily rise.
Chua also said the current nursing programme appeared to be a gross waste of the taxpayers' money
SAPP buli....buli bla!!!!!!!!!!!!!!hahaha.....DAN BULI BAYAR 1 Juta Ringgit Malaysia!!!!! ....perhatian kepada ahli-ahli parti SAPP, sila masuk saja dalam STAR! kalau butul-butul mau pembangkang SABAH menang! kecuali kalau ada niat mau jadi calon! Calon Orang Tua!!!kekeke....cukuplah tu...Pigi JAGA cucu! atau ambil cucu di sekolah masa tengahari! ada juga faedah!!! ...kamurang tiada harapan...NAKALANUT SUDAH!!!! haha.........
ReplyDeleteThe government should handle this issue for the sake of the jobless ones.
ReplyDeleteThe Education Minister should ensure that Higher Institutions does not take in any more students until the demand for nurses increases.
DeleteThey should set a quota for each higher institution, once the quota is filled no more students can be taken in. That was we can control the amount of nursing graduates in the market.
DeleteIt is quite sad to see how these young ladies struggle so hard to make ends meet afterwards.
ReplyDeleteCareer like nursing should be considered equally important like every other professional/medical professions out there.
ReplyDeleteGovernment can give rise to more hopes for the future nurses.
ReplyDeleteI really hope others are able to sort out their service loans with ease.
ReplyDeleteI hope the government could find a solution to this problem. I'm sure many of those jobless nurses have study loans to pay.
ReplyDeletefresh high school graduates should think twice before deciding to take nursing course due to the difficulty of gaining a placement in government hospitals in the state.
ReplyDeleteWhy choose nursing? Because people commonly say this job is secure bla bla..in the end, this is what happened.
DeleteFresh graduates are in a lot of pressure from friends and family regarding their future, it is easy to take the wrong step without making the right consideration.
Deletemakin banyak wujud kolej swasta, makin ramai pelajar dan makin sengit persaingan untuk mendapatkan pekerjaan.
ReplyDeleteSometimes private colleges only take advantages on these students.
Deletebagi graduates dalam mana2 bidang sekalipun mereka tidak boleh mengharapkan pekerjaan yang benar2 sesuai dengan bidang yang mereka ambil ketika belajar di kolej/universiti dulu.
ReplyDeleteWhere there is a will, there is a way. If they can't be a nurse, then look for another career. It's not gonna be easy but that's life. Take it or leave it.
ReplyDeleteTry to upgrade to become a medical assistant, take a few more years in the right course since they couldn't find a job as nurse at the moment, if they are really into the medical field.
DeleteHope the MOH could settle this problem before it becomes worst.
ReplyDeletejurusan nurse mmg byk persaingan, kini dah terlalu ramai IPT yang tawarkan bidang ini belum termasuk dari SPA.
ReplyDeleteLebihan Jururawat sememangnya menyebabkan pengangguran berlaku terhadap bidang ini. Ini berikutan peluang pekerjaan yang kurang dalam bidang ini mengundang pengangguran berlaku.
ReplyDeleteCarilah kursus lain yang mempunyai permintaan pekerja yang lebih seperti pendidikan dan lain-lain.
Deleteno one expected it will happen..
ReplyDeleteChua should blame those IPT who only focus on their profits instead of quality and availability of the course in the future..
ReplyDeleteI think the intake of nursing course should has quota or limitation.
ReplyDeleteThe Health Ministry is working on creating vacancies at government hospitals to absorb the large number of unemployed graduate nurses.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteHealth 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.
Delete“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.
DeleteLiow 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.
DeleteIn 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.
DeleteOver the past week, The Star ran several reports highlighting the difficulty faced by nursing graduates from private institutes in finding jobs.
DeleteA 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.
ReplyDeleteLiow 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.
ReplyDeleteHe said the Government currently runs around 30 colleges, whose graduates are trained to meet the needs of public hospitals.
ReplyDeleteOn 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.
ReplyDelete“We are not looking at it as a surplus. We do need nurses, and so does the private sector because it is also expanding.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete“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.
ReplyDelete“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.
ReplyDeleteLiow 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.
ReplyDelete