Page 61 - Nursing Education in Malaysia

Chapter 5
Conclusion

Nursing has some major issues to address and multiple basic needs to fulfill, some of which
are so extremely basic akin to Maslow’s physiological needs for air, water and food which
must be partially satisfied before higher order needs (such as social needs) can be fulfilled.
For example, the low entry requirement into nursing (ie. SPM three credits) which has
not changed for the last 25 years, and now that it has (to five credits in 2010), instead
of rejoicing for the profession, serious objections have been made; nursing care is task
oriented based almost entirely on doctor’s orders; more than 99% of nurses are diploma
holders (receiving a starting salary of U29 and retiring at below U36) placing nursing
within the support service category within the government service structure, awaiting
CUEPAC (Kongres Kesatuan Pekerja-pekerja Di dalam Perkhidmatan Awam) to improve
its fate; nursing DATABASE is almost nonexistent despite advances in computer and
communication technology: registration exam for thousands of candidates three times a
year remain at paper-and-pencil exam; Nursing Process Model and problem-based learning
(PBL) cannot be implemented because of the weakness in the system. More importantly,
despite the improvement in nursing education system, weak leadership is felt at every level
of the system. Nursing leadership, on the whole, lacks vision, maturity and intellectual
presence.

The above mentioned needs are mostly “physiological” which must be partially
fulfilled before issues of professional autonomy, one-system education, research-enterprise,
nursing expertise and professional status and many more, could be satisfactorily achieved.
For example, it would take a tremendous amount of commitment and sense of accountability
for the Ministry of Health to even accept the idea of the 60:40 degree diploma nurse ratio
because of what it implies, or to agree with the idea of one-system nursing education. A
failed attempt at addressing these two issues alone, would result in non-application of the
Nursing Process Model, a strategy so needed in gaining professionalism and autonomy.

The concerted efforts of all concerned – the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Higher
Education, Nursing Board of Malaysia, Jemaah Kejururawatan IPTA, Nursing Education
Task Force and the Malaysian Academy of Nursing – can make it all possible for some, if
not all, of the issues to be resolved.