Have you been thinking of nursing as a career? In our community, we still have the mindset saying “nurse is an average pay job”, that only average people will jump into the nursing field to carry it as a profession. Some has the mentality of “only” those with average SPM results would pursue nursing studies. This is utterly unacceptable.

In general, a nurse shares the same responsibilities as a doctor or a medical practitioner. They are the frontliners. The main mission is to look after sick people and get them cured. Nurse is the eyes and ears for the doctors. Both professions complete each other, and in fact needing each other very much. Statistics shows that Malaysia is way to improve their quantity of nursing and health personnel.

Source: Malaysia Ministry of Health Malaysia

Ministry of Health (Kementerian Kesihatan Malaysia, KKM, MOH) at the present is accepting foreign nurses from the following seven countries to accommodate the shortage. Qualified nurses from these seven countries – India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippine, Myanmar and Albania are allowed to work in Malaysia.

Nursing is a rewarding profession. Nevertheless, nursing studies is not always suitable for everyone. To excel in this profession one must be tip top! Sincere, serene, alert, concern, determines, good communication skills, as well as full of passions and desires in nursing. It is a most noble job.

High rank and successful nurses will become a Matron, specialist, lecturer, chief nurse or hospital coordinator. Nurses receive numerous benefits and allowance and besides receiving good remuneration.

Nurses in Malaysia now can get higher salary, especially for those who decide to further their studies in degrees and masters.

The Health Minister, Datuk Dr. Liow Tiong Lai told that nurses with degrees will be able to earn salary with a grade range between U41 to U54.

At the moment, the highest salary grade for nurses is U48. With the new pay scale and grade, the government is hoping to cultivate more interest among the students to choose nursing as their career, and help to reduce the ratio of nurse: no. of people in the country.

The nurse: no. of people ratio in the country today stands at 1:375, which falls short of the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of 1:200.

A fresh graduate who starts their career with U41 grade scale earns close to RM2,000 of monthly basic salary. In addition to the basic salary, he or she is also entitled for a number of allowances and monetary perks, including housing allowance, cost of living (COLA), critical allowance and public service incentives. A nurse at the U48 scale, on the other hand, takes home about RM8,000.

For someone to reach the U54 pay grade, a nurse would need to obtain at least a Masters, and accumulates a minimum experience of 20 years in service. The grade U54 is also usually accorded to those in high level management, such as the department directors, where the recipient would be receiving a salary of RM10,000 per month or more.

Apart from nurses, X-ray technicians, medical assistants (MA) and health inspectors are also subject with the same pay grade.