South may have too many nurses due to project

A year into an ambitious project to churn out 3,000 professional nurses to overcome a shortage in three southern provinces, Health Ministry officials say the goal may have overshot its objective.

Professor Tada Yipintsoi, chairman of the Public Health Ministry's working group to solve health problems in the South, said he feared the programme by the ministry would create an oversupply of nurses.

"We don't know where they can all find work after graduation as we don't need that many nurses," Dr Tada said.

The violence-plagued provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat require only 300 nurses to fill vacancies, mostly in community hospitals, and make up positions left open by nurses who have transferred to other provinces, Tada said.

"I don't understand why he [the former Public Health minister Dr Mongkol na Songkhla] gave us 3,000 nurses, as we only asked for 300," he said.

Its enrolment exceeds the number of students at all 25 branches of Boromarajjonani College of Nursing that are under the ministry, he noted.

Currently, these 25 colleges turn out 2,500 nurses each year.

"The project could be burden on the nursing colleges as the number of students has been doubled," said Tada, a respected physician at Prince of Songkla University's (PSU) faculty of medicine.

He had opposed the project from the start and often voiced his opinion to the former minister that the project was not well planned.

Only local students could take part in the project which was fully financed by the government. After graduation, the nurses would be given a chance to work with official status at hospitals in their communities.

Mongkol insisted the project was based on the needs of the region.

However, figures at the ministry database had shown the number of nurses at the three provinces was "not inadequate".

Currently there are 2,871 nurses working in Yala, Pattani, Narathiwat and five districts of Songkhla, where violence had erupted.

The present demand for nurses in these areas was estimated to be 2,923.

Dr Supat Hasuwannakit, director of Jana Hospital, Songkhla, said the ratio of nurses per population in this area was actually much higher than the Northeast.

Supat said Mongkol, who had a reputation for devoting his efforts to rural communities, had his own reasons for the project.

"I can't think of any other reason except security. He might want to train youths in the region and open opportunities for them to be state officials," he said.

Supat agreed with Tada that the project was not well planned or organised.

He feared the project may incur more problems than solutions.

A study by PSU's faculty of nursing found all 25 nursing colleges included in the project had insufficient teachers for the enlarged enrolment.

Classrooms and dormitories were overbooked as each college had to train 100-200 more students than they had room for.

The study was paid for by the Human Health Resources Research and Development Institute.

The most chronic problem was a shortage of teachers. While the ministry allowed the colleges to employ more teachers, they were not given official status.

As a result few teachers applied for the jobs, said one teacher.

The quality of students under the project had also become a worry.

As the project did not specify a minimum grade point average (GPA) for applicants, more than 700 of the students enrolled have a score of less than 2.5.

The minimum GPA for nursing students at all 70 nursing colleges, including those outside the supervision of the ministry, is 2.5.

So far 20 per cent of the students had reportedly failed in at least one subject.

Tada was concerned many students may not obtain a nursing licence from the Council of Nurses.

He urged the ministry to evaluate the project and seek ways to secure quality nurses.

"We recruited them, so we have to be responsible for them," he said.