Indonesian Nurses in Demand Overseas, Says Minister
More countries are expressing
interest in hiring Indonesian nurses because of the attentive and caring
treatment they provide patients, the health minister said on Friday.
Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih was speaking in Batam, Riau, after
inaugurating the country’s first international-standard training center
for health workers.
“Indonesian nurses are in demand because they treat people in a diligent and friendly manner,” she said.
Endang said training centers like the one in Batam were necessary to produce enough skilled medical workers to meet demand.
“In 2010, many global agreements, including the Asean Charter and
China-Asean Free Trade Agreement, will be implemented, which means
everything is going global, including the health sector,” she said.
The minister said Indonesian health workers should be able to meet
international standards in order to satisfy the demand for quality care.
Bambang Giatno, the head of the Health Ministry’s human resource
development training agency, said the government had received requests
for 1,600 nurses from Norway and 1,000 nurses from Japan.
He said the ministry was also in preliminary talks with the Qatari
government about sending Indonesian nurses to the Arab emirate.
Therefore, he said, it was necessary that intensive training got under way to produce more qualified nurses.
At the newly inaugurated training center, selected nurses will undergo
six months of intensive training, including a language course, Bambang
said.
Once training is complete, the nurses will work at Alexandra Hospital in
Singapore to acquire the accreditation needed to work overseas.
Bambang said Indonesia had already sent hundreds of nurses to Japan, all
of whom had passed a competency test and were able to work anywhere in
the world they wished.
Source : http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/indonesian-nurses-in-demand-overseas-says-minister/359772
