Nursing not popular career choice – college

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KOTA KINABALU: Not many people are keen to venture into a career in nursing.

Aseana College programme director Helen Chiang, who is also a former nurse, explained that this was probably due to the huge array of other careers now available for people to choose from.

Yet another pertinent cause could be the lack of awareness concerning nursing itself, said Chiang when speaking to The Borneo Post yesterday.

She added that the college constantly seeks out secondary school students who are about to leave for tertiary education and give them talks about nursing as a career.

“We find that there are many students who are keen on nursing, because after conducting our talk we always ask for the students’ feedback. About 50 per cent would raise their hands to state that they are interested in the career,” she said.

Additionally, the college staff also travel to the rural areas of Sabah to promote nursing as a career to rural youths.

“We are keen on rural youths as we’re trying to answer the government’s call to help eradicate poverty within the Sabah community, and in particular those in the rural areas,” she said.

She added that one of the students who registered during their first intake three years ago was so poor, she only had three clothes when she first came to the college.

“This student is also one of our best performing now — she is very disciplined, very good in her studies.”

The college helps students who are facing financial distress such as her, said Helen.

“We do screen our students to check if they need help in any way. Our student community comprise 90 per cent from the lower and middle income groups. Only 10 per cent are financially self-sufficient,” she said.

Presently, the college has 1,090 students, the majority of whom are receiving financial support from the government through the PTPTN.

“They get a monthly allowance of RM300 through PTPTN,” she said.

Eventually, she said she hoped they would be able to help their community and bring their families out of the grasp of poverty.

“Even if we manage to help 50 per cent of them, that would be good already,” she said.

On the syllabus taught at the college, Helen explained that they have to abide by whatever rules set by the government and its policy.

And of course, discipline is very crucial, she said.

“We teach our students to care for their patients, to smile at them and instill caring attitude. For me, all nurses should have this quality,” she said.

Students at the college are also encouraged to conduct hands-on practice on various nursing procedures as well as allowed access to Information Communication Technology (ICT) for e-learning.

In short, said Helen, they are hoping to form nurses that would be of great value to their employers and to the general public as caretakers.

Meanwhile, Aseana College chief executive officer Pushpanathan Ayyakkanu urged the students to bring back the old glory of nursing.

Pushpanathan also urged the students to follow in the steps of Florence Nightingale who contributed immensely to the modern nursing profession.

Nightingale, also known as the ‘Lady with the lamp’, had set an example of compassion and commitment to patient care.

“Let us not forget that here. That journey which was started is still going on,” he said.

He then called on the nursing students to become the sort of nurses that Malaysia would be proud of.

Meanwhile, group managing director of the college, Maran Kannan, said the college was building up a good reputation for itself and that response from health providers in the State had been positive.