Malaysia is witnessing an exodus of nurses to overseas jobs paying three or four times the starting salary at home, prompting warnings that low wages and poor conditions are hollowing out essential healthcare services.
The country has just one nurse for every 283 people – missing the WHO’s target of one per 225 – as overcrowded public facilities, critical shortages of healthcare professionals, and a widening disparity between public and private care drive trained nurses overseas.
From a cruise ship off the Pacific resort coast of Huatulco in Mexico, Susan Wong told This Week in Asia that after eight years as a frontline nurse, she decided it was time for a change.
“I am incredibly grateful for where I am today,” Wong said. “I am living my dream life, travelling the world and getting paid for it.”
Aside from the chance to travel as far away as Alaska and the Caribbean, she also enjoys the better pay in US dollars, on top of having her accommodation and food expenses covered.
“So we save a lot,” she said, adding that there were two other former Malaysian nurses on board.
The Malaysian Nurses Association (MNA) says there are over 117,000 registered nurses in the country, but they must care for up to six patients each in understaffed wards, coupled with high expectations from patients expecting preferential care.
“Their welfare is not cared for, with many having to do double duties because of the shortage that led to detrimental effects on their mental health,” Saaidah Athman President of the Malaysian Nurses Union (MNU) Saaidah told This Week in Asia.
