Materia Medica Malaysiana

Nurses Required To Attend More Courses, Training Programmes

PUTRAJAYA, March 16 (Bernama) -- Nurses will be required to attend more courses and training programmes so that they can become more professional, Health Ministry parliamentary secretary Lee Kah Choon said Wednesday.
He said that with the hospitals now being equipped with advanced and sophisticated clinical equipment and other peripherals, nurses had to be taught periodically how to operate and use them.
While the ministry was scouting for more people to join as nurses, it could not ignore its important duty to meet the people's demand for better service, he told reporters here.
He said there were also plans to improve the communication skills of nurses for better interaction with patients.
"By the year 2020, in the process of the country becoming a developed country, it needs to have a certain standard in healthcare. So, we are moving towards this target," he said.
Lee said nurses were an influential force in the ministry as they currently represent 30 per cent of its total staff strength of 120,000.