Bring in foreign nurses as a short term measure to address shortage - APHM

Malaysia should consider bringing in foreign nurses as a stop-gap measure to address the shortage of nurses in the country.

Association of Private Hospitals Malaysia (APHM) president Datuk Dr Kuljit Singh said this should not be a major challenge as it has been done before.

“Many years ago, we had foreign nurses in private hospitals, but it was stopped to fulfil the criteria of using locally-trained nurses and we did have enough locally-trained nurses at that point in time.

“However, over a period of time, these locally-trained nurses became well-trained in their jobs which made them marketable in other parts of the world,” said Dr Kuljit.

He added that this situation has brought Malaysia back to square one, with a shortage of nurses in the workforce.

Dr Kuljit was speaking on Astro AWANI's Consider This about tackling the shortage of nurses in the country.

He was joined on the programme by retired nurse manager Siti Mahfudz.

She highlighted that several factors influenced the likelihood of a nurse leaving the Malaysian workforce, such as wages.

“Nurses have to work shift duties - morning, afternoon, night, and night. With the stress of the work that they face, including the patients'demands, some may feel that it does not commensurate with the wages they receive.

“Not only that, but these wages have not been revised for years. I believe the last time it was reviewed was in the 90s,” said Siti.

Therefore, Siti felt that a revision should be considered to take into account the level of education of these nurses as well as their areas of specialisation.

“With most nurses now getting degrees and specialising, they should be recognised and given a better salary, but no, they are still paid the same as the rest," she added.

It was previously reported that Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa has commented on the shortage of nurses at private health institutions, attributing it to distribution problems and the need to implement redistribution measures.

She said that, among other things, the recruitment of nurses from abroad should be considered to help the private sector overcome this shortage.