Materia Medica Malaysiana

Private Sector Encouraged To Set Up Nursing Colleges

UALA LUMPUR, April 26 (Bernama) -- The Higher Education Ministry welcomes the establishment of nursing colleges offering advanced level courses by the private sector to help overcome the shortage of trained nurses in the country, the Dewan Rakyat was told Tuesday.
The Parliamentary Secretary to the ministry, Datuk Dr Adham Baba, said the colleges must be registered as private institutions of higher learning and apply to offer the nursing courses under the Private Higher Education Institutions Act 1996.
"If the colleges want their graduates to join the civil service, it is advisable for them to obtain the accreditation from the National Accreditation Board," he said in replying to a question from Dr Rozaidah Talib (BN-Ampang).
Dr Rozaidah had wanted to know the steps taken by the ministry to overcome the shortage of nurses in hospitals nationwide.
She said the nurse-patient ratio was 1:436, lower than the ideal ratio of 1:200.
She said Malaysia needed about 8,000 additional nurses annually but could only make available 3,000 more each year.
Dr Adham said that as at December last year, 56,703 trained nurses were in service while 1,160 student nurses were undergoing the course at public higher education institutions and 2,861 more in private colleges.
Up to last month, the ministry had approved 20 applications from private institutions to offer nursing courses while seven applications were under consideration, he said.