‘WE NEED MORE OF THEM’
HEALTH Ministry wants Public Service Department to lift moratorium on recruitment of nurses.
SERDANG: Reminiscing about her days as an ophthalmologist, Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail thanked nurses for their assistance and guidance in her early days as a doctor.
She said doctors, especially younger medical officers, discharged their responsibilities more confidently with the assistance of nurses.
“Nurses gave me a lot of confidence... as a young doctor coming out from medical school, the support and guidance the nurses gave me were priceless. They knew better because they had the experience.
“Having the nurses around, I felt that I could carry on and do this, to become a doctor, which I had trained and studied for,” she said.
Dr Wan Azizah said this during her speech to some 3,000 nurses at International Nurses Day at Malaysia Agro Exposition Park here.
The event, which was celebrated with the theme “Nurses: A Voice to Lead — Health for All”, saw Boey Swee Kam and Emmalice Jaboh receive the Education and Service awards, respectively.
Boey, from Ipoh, served in government hospitals, specialising in midwifery, before becoming a nursing tutor at a maternity hospital in Kuala Lumpur.
She was active in the Central Malayan Trained Nurses League and was the Malaysian Nurses Association (MNA) general treasurer from 1986 to 1988.
Emmalice was dubbed the “pillar” during the MNA formation in 1978. She later aided in the opening of the MNA branch in Sarawak.
Among her many accomplishments was to initiate training for nurses in cardiac care and surgery in hospitals.
Present were Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, Health Ministry director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, Health Ministry Nursing Division nursing director Tumble Ngadiran @ Tomblow and Malaysian Nursing Association president Sharipah Asiah Syed Junid Aljunid.