KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 26 — In rare public criticism, half a dozen nursing associations have opposed the addition of three (uncompensated) working hours for nurses in the public health service to 45 hours a week.
The Malayan Nurses Union (MNU), the Malaysian Nurses Association (MNA), the Delegation of Nurses (DON), the Islamic Nurses Association of Malaysia (INAM), Malaysian Men in Nursing (MMN), and the Malaysian Mental Health Nurses Association (MHN) have issued statements rejecting longer work shifts for government nurses under the Sistem Saraan Perkhidmatan Awam (SSPA).
“We, representing the said associations, express our full support for our application to postpone the implementation of working hours for nurses, which is 45 hours a week, that is scheduled to start on December 1, 2024,” MNA, DON, INAM, MMN, and MHN said in a joint statement yesterday.
The five nurses’ groups highlighted the lack of human resources, pointing out that additional working hours could increase the burden of nurses on duty and subsequently affect the quality of patient care.
Imbalanced work duties from the new shift system also increase the risk of work pressures, fatigue, and burnout among nurses.
“Before implementation, it is important to ensure that government hospitals and facilities have sufficient human resources, including recruiting additional nurses or coordinating work schedules.”
Besides the joint statement, MHN and MMN have also issued their own individual statements, while INAM and MNU (which wasn’t part of the joint statement) have also given comments to the media.
“The extension of working hours will not address the underlying issue of staff shortages. Strategic investments in recruitment and training are necessary to bridge staffing gaps, not increased working hours,” MHN said in its statement yesterday.
Meanwhile, MMN said: “We, from the Malaysian Men in Nursing, completely oppose the proposal to increase working hours to 45 hours a week for nurses on shift duty.”
“We are concerned that this proposal will badly affect nurses’ physical and mental wellbeing besides affecting the quality of patient care,” it added.
MNU president Saaidah Athman told Sinar Harian that the current shift hours for nurses are more than enough and should not be increased.
“As far as we’ve been working in the shift system, there has been no allocation for one-hour breaks from Monday to Thursday, nor a break of two and a half hours for Fridays like staff who work office hours.”
MNA, DON, INAM, MMN, and MHN have launched an opinion poll among nurses on the 45-hour weekly shift system, collecting responses until 11.59pm today. According to DON, more than 21,000 people have already responded.
The survey asks respondents if the additional working hours will affect the quality of service, if they agree with a 45-hour work week, their reasons if they disagree, other proposals for a nurses’ shift system, and their work burden on a scale of 1 to 5.
The new shift system under SSPA is due to come into effect on December 1; it is intended to streamline working hours to 45 hours weekly for all civil servants, including health care workers, across the board.
Earlier today, the Public Service Department (JPA) posted on X a reminder for civil servants to sign up for SSPA, reminding them that there are four days left.
Health Minister Dzulkefly Ahmad, in a response to the joint statement by five nurses’ groups, promised stakeholder engagement sessions with the Ministry of Health’s (MOH) nursing division and nurses’ associations — four days before the implementation of the SSPA shift system this Sunday.
“Therefore, I ask for patience from MOH staff affected by this change while we immediately examine (perhalusi) this issue in the nearest time,” he posted on X.
Former Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin pointed out that nurses working on shift duty in the public health service don’t get to have breaks.
“Especially if you’re in the public ward and things like that, the pressure is extraordinary compared to someone working in the office. The pressure is not the same. That’s why there are objections,” Khairy said on his Keluar Sekejap podcast that was aired yesterday.
“If we’re being cynical, we can ask if this is truly a need by the SSPA or JPA to streamline to 45 hours without exemptions for the health sector, or if this is simply a temporary measure to resolve our nursing shortage.
“We have a ratio of one nurse to 300 patients, which is far behind the ratio recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) of one nurse to 200 patients.”
