Page 43 - Nursing Education in Malaysia

3/ tHE status of NursiNg iN Malaysia

of private colleges or issues of nursing shortage, and so on. In general, MNA appears to
mainly exist to support Ministry of Health’s agenda.

To be of benefits to nursing as a profession, the establishment of another professional
body is seen as a positive step in helping to bring about awareness to the public about
nursing’s active role in politics, profesional and financial issues affecting nursing.

It is safe to conclude that nursing in Malaysia, while fulfilling other characteristics of
a profession, lacks the autonomy that is required by all professions to control its practice.

In conclusion, Nursing in Malaysia has several challenging needs which must be
addressed. These include:

1. Nursing Education

(a) Having all nursing education programmes under one umbrella, that of the
Ministry of Higher Education based on the principle that all programmes must
be accredited using MQF standards and criteria.

(b) Having a mechanism to ensure that the entry requirements into basic nursing
programmes at diploma and baccalaureate levels be specified to include pure
science subjects and mathematics as a basis for ensuring a strong background in
critical thinking and problem solving.

(c) Employing teachers of nursing who are content experts and experienced in
relevant clinical specialties as well as ensuring that each nonnursing subject be
taught only by content experts at respective levels of nursing education.

(d) The inclusion of one of the conditions for reviewing of Annual Practicing
Certificate (APC) for nurse teachers as participating actively in the practice of
nursing in the clinical setting, as a basis for ensuring that what is taught to
students is current and relevant; and that the APC should be the concern of the
individual nurse not the employer as a basis for achieving autonomy.

(e) Achieving the 30-50% target of PhD/Doctorate in Nursing holders in public and
private universities by 2020 as expected by the Ministry of Higher Education.

(f) The participation of only institutions of higher learning with hospitals or
affiliate hospitals in the conduct of Diploma in Nursing, Bachelor of Nursing
and Masters of Nursing degree. Accordingly, by 2020 only nurse teachers
with clinical degrees (Bachelor’s degree with postgraduate clinical diploma/
certificate, Masters in Clinical Nursing, and doctorate in clinical practice) should
be allowed to teach nursing.

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