Author: Tiffany Winesa

Master’s student, Faculty of Nursing, University of Indonesia, specializing in Nursing Leadership and Management

TRIBUNEWSDEPOK.COM, JAKARTA – Data from the National Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers (BNP2TKI), from 2015 to 2019, Indonesia received applications for 15,431 nurses from the Middle East each year.

However, only 5,625 could be fulfilled by Indonesia. Placement of nurses through the government-to-government (G to G) program in Japan, the United States, Canada, Germany and other countries from 2016 to 2019, Indonesia could not meet than 52% of total demand.

The Central Statistical Agency (BPS) noted that the number of nurses in Indonesia will reach 511,191 people in 2021. This number increased by 16.65% from the previous year which stood at 438,234 people. .

Compared to the absorption capacity of nurses in Indonesia, this number produces a surplus of nurses of 15-16%, or the equivalent of 28,000 unemployed nurses.

This is very unfortunate given that the demand for overseas nurses is quite large, but is limited by language skills and international professional certification.

Efforts are therefore needed to overcome this problem, among other things, by increasing language training for nurses and establishing international certification standards.

The Central Statistical Agency (BPS) predicts that the number of nurses will continue to grow by 34-38% per year.

This is evident from the increase in the percentage of nurses graduating from D3, D4 and S1 levels.

One of the challenges to be faced is the problem of providing employment opportunities. Meanwhile, on the other hand, the global community is facing a shortage of nurses, namely the limited number of nurses, especially for the developed countries.

International migration doubles every year. In 2014, no less than 192 million people migrated and it is estimated that in 2020, no less than 230 million of the world’s population are migrants, including 1.5 million healthcare workers professionals, in particular nurses who represent 80% of healthcare workers overall.

Data from BNP2TKI, in 2017-2018 there was a demand for nurses, nursing homes and caregivers with a total number of 944,916, spread across Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Papua New Guinea and Taiwan .

However, only 84,316 workers can be filled for placement in Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Taiwan, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Malaysia, Japan, Hong Kong, Brunei Darussalam, Bahrain, in Canada and Sri Lanka.