Malaysia’s Health Ministry is intensifying efforts to recruit and retain nurses. Health Minister Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad emphasized the ministry’s focus on maintaining a competitive public nursing service, ensuring nurses’ welfare, and enhancing career development.
Among the steps taken are salary improvements, incentives, and allowances based on qualifications, including increasing the post-basic allowance from RM100 to RM200 a month. The ministry is also retaining the 42-hour working week for shift nurses and expanding training opportunities.
Dzulkefly announced these measures after launching the National Liver Health Initiative Roadmap 2026–2030 at Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz UKM. He was responding to a question about more than 6,000 nurse vacancies in Malaysia and concerns that many nurses were migrating overseas.
The ministry is focusing on two main approaches: accelerating the recruitment of new nurses and strengthening retention measures for those already in service. Dzulkefly said nurses are no longer employed under contract appointments, and the ministry wants to ensure the public nursing service remains attractive.
Retaining the 42-hour working week is particularly important for nurses working shifts, Dzulkefly said. The ministry is also expanding placement flexibility through the suka sama suka mutual transfer system, which has benefited nurses among other service schemes.
In June 2024, Dzulkefly reported 6,787 nurse vacancies as of March 31 that year, involving both existing posts and new positions created through upgrades and the opening of new health facilities. By August this year, the number of vacancies had increased to 10,557 among 73,281 Grade U5 nurse posts in health facilities.
The issue of overseas migration has drawn attention, with 3,021 nurses from Malaysia‘s healthcare sector migrating overseas in 2024, according to Malaysian Nursing Board records. Of these, 2,554 were from private healthcare facilities, 353 from the Health Ministry, and 114 from other public facilities.
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