Page 9 - Nursing Education in Malaysia

Chapter 1
Introduction

Nursing in Malaysia earns its heritage from the British. While British nursing has
evolved with time, the old British system is still with us. In nursing service, for example,
we continue to use such nomenclatures as matrons, sisters and tutors and yet have not
gained much in terms of autonomy and empowerment. Nursing practice is task oriented
based almost entirely on doctors’ orders. Leadership remains subservient to the medical
profession either because it provides stability, or because nursing does not know how to
get out of it. For example, the Nursing Board of Malaysia is chaired by a medical doctor
for the last 60 years. Presumably, Malaysia remains the only country in the world that has
a board headed by a medical doctor. In Britain, all of these have changed. There are no
more matrons and sisters. They have a Nursing Council (The UK Nursing Council) which
has control over nursing practice and the Head of the Council is a nurse. Thailand Nursing
Board (chaired by a doctor) had changed to a Nursing Council in 1986 and has a nurse as
its chairperson. South Africa has changed its board to a council in 2005, also headed by a
nurse.

In nursing education, the emphasis remains on teacher-centred and didactic in
approach in most colleges, despite changes in the educational scene in other disciplines,
both locally and abroad. For some, students are given allowance to study nursing and
positions are secured upon graduation. Licensure exam remains paper-and-pencil in nature
despite the rapid advances in computer and communication technology. Nursing database
at the Ministry of Health is almost nonexistent. Relationship between nursing service and
nursing education remains distant in most institutions, and has yet to be established by
either Ministry of Higher Education or Ministry of Health. Currently, Malaysia has two
systems of nursing education, one under the Ministry of Higher Education (approximately
75%) which are subjected to the Malaysian Qualifications Framework (MQF) standards
and criteria, and the other under the Ministry of Health which is not subjected to the MQF
standards and criteria.

Altogether, there are 98 public and private institutions offering diploma and degree
in nursing programmes: 17 in the Ministry of Health, 10 public universities, 70 private
colleges/universities and 1 in the Ministry of Defence. Out of the 98 institutions, 88 of
them offer diploma programmes. Diploma graduates dominate almost the entire nursing