Shortage of nurses hit Malawi: Has only 25% of required numbers
Malawi faces a critical shortage of nurses with officials saying the current figures show that the country has only 25 percent of the required numbers.
In 2010, Malawi had a nurse/patient ratio of 17:100,000 and the ratio is said to have improved to 34 nurses per 100 000 patients but this ratio is still high compared with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended 500 nurses per 100 000 patients.
Principal of Kamuzu College of Nursing and Midwifery, Professor Address Malata in an interview with Nyasa Times said the situation is still deteriorating with nursing vacancy rate in the country now at 75 percent.
Malata sent an SOS calling for more collaboration among stakeholders to rectify the situation.
The KCN Principal was speaking in an interview on the sidelines of the opening of a Consortium for Advanced Research Training in Africa (Carta) in Lilongwe on Wednesday, September 17, 2014.
She observed that quality healthcare cannot be improved with the current shortage of human resource in the health sector and nurses in particular.
“The current vacancy rate of nurses and midwives is huge. Of course, as a way of solving this problem, the University of Malawi has responded by creating new PhD programmes,” she said.
Malata said while more nurses and midwifes are needed in terms of providing bedside and other clinical care for patients, there is also need for more such professionals to intensify research.
“Research will help unearth new methods of training individuals and improve the health sector,” she said.
Carta was established by the African Population and Health Research Centre as a way of strengthening research infrastructure in African universities and to support doctoral training through a model collaborative PhD programme in population and public health.
“As a country, we have greatly benefited from Carta because the country has the highest total number of fellows under the armpit of the organisation,” said Malata.
She added: “Malawi developed a national health research agenda whose lifespan is four years from 2012 aiming at ensuring that research is in line with national development priorities.”
During the function, African Population and Health Research Centre director Alex Ezeh said it is important for African universities to work together as they normally have similar problems.
“We have to take a leading role in training scholars because a student, once trained in Africa, has got a high chance of working anywhere on the continent,” said Ezeh.
He also said university education in most sub-Saharan African countries faces many challenges, including unprecedented growth in student enrolment and the expansion of training programmes, among others.
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You should have a conversation with the ministry of health and the ministry of Labour and the ministry of planning and Economic Development..
Most importantly, how are you going to incentivise the nursing profession? I advise you to look up nursing stats at the us department of labour and particularly the health profession and itss #future job gtowth projections.
Lack of nurses is a reflection of lack of incentives in our country. What are you doing to keep nurses in malawi.
LEARN TO LOOK AFTER YOUR NURSES, THEY WILL STAY IN COUNTRY
Shortage of nurses true but what of cleaners?why should patients’ guardIans be made toilet cleaners?hospital management take note or u are saying ur allocations do not include sanitation contracts?
The problem cannot be solved by introducing Masters or PhD programmes. The fact is that nurses do not receive incentives to keep them in the service. This is worsened by the fact that there is a huge demand for nurses in other countries such as the UK and though salaries are low in such countries, they cannot compare with our salaries. The lesser evil therefore is for nurses to migrate. Inasmuch as Malawi cannot compete with the UK in terms of salaries, there are still ways in which serving as a nurse in Malawi would be attractive than elsewhere or… Read more »
many nurse technicians graduate but eventually change professions because of the treatment they get from both the environment and and the so called REGISTERED NURSES WHO DO NOT DO THE PRACTICAL WORK . as im talking 50% of them are in school ,30% quit and started new professions and only 20% continue to work. MUSOVENGE
Iwe ndiye wayankhula i think umazitsata za manursezi iwe mu nursing ndi profession imene imabowa pa malawi pano. Kuli azimayi obowa khalidwe ozunza ana a anzawo. Go ku KCN kuli azimayi ongowophyeza komanso Nzeru alibe. Guyz ithaweni Nursingyo simungatukuke ma leaders ake lack vision and have rusty munds and dont even like them. Nursing ndie kuti chani? kkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk ntchito kupukuta mawindow baxi hahahahahah
Oh!!! What are you saying over in Malawi ??? We are on our as Nigerian nurses !!!! Pay us millions of kwachas !!! Oh, by the way, we will call also cussians the Phillipino nurses !!!!It is easy to get work permits in your country than in other countries. Just few kwachas to some officesrs in Bt and Lilongwe for 12PM m’memo then the deal is sealed !!!! The Nyasa guys do not put this until we get there!!!! You too will get something small for fanta!!!!
another problem is the situation with council examz. u say fresh graduating nurses cant work in the wards before they get lincences as a result these guys are just rotting in thier home in the name of waiting for council examz. i think it would be better if you might allow these guys to be in the wards beefing up the staff while they are waiting for teh examz. there a lot of fresh graduates in the communities who are jst staying saying they are waitng to write council examz, thats not fair
Vuto lake nurse mumawerengera apa KCN okha, enawa mumati ndi bed pans??
A lot of nurses have left the proffessional especially nurse te hnician who make up of 70 % of the said nurses many are being trained a health systems managers , at Com some r at Bunda doing nutrition some at chanco doing human resource and some at Livingstonia doing public health in the next 5 or so years to come the situation will come back to 1993 believe u me the situation on the is worse the pathetic thing is some NMTs who opt to re-write their msce and happen to beselected to other college other than kcn to… Read more »
Just clearing the air, the two year african university is for registered nurses who hold a diploma or certificate and registere as Registere Nurses in their home countries. African university is just making money out of these NMTs who have not read the university prospectus. the programme is not a bridging programme but rather a top up and Nurses council is right not to register those who have gone through this programme. some people are arguing that once NMT get this qualification he/she can work anywhere in the world, much as I understand that this qualification is recognised world wide,… Read more »
A lot of nurses have left the proffessional especially nurse te hnician who make up of 70 % of the said nurses many are being trained a health systems managers , at Com some r at Bunda doing nutrition some at chanco doing human resource and some at Livingstonia doing public health in the next 5 or so years to come the situation will come back to 1993 believe u me the situation on the is worse the pathetic thing is some NMTs who opt to re-write their msce and happen to beselected to other college other than kcn to… Read more »