Indonesian nurses in Japan
As Japan’s population ages, an already serious shortage of qualified nurses is getting worse. To alleviate the situation, the Japanese government has begun to allow nurses from Indonesia to come to Japan and work at Japanese hospitals and care facilities.
Here is a report from Japanese TV network MBS about arrival of Indonesian nurses at one care facility:
The Indonesians are very happy to be starting work in Japan. However, they will have to overcome a lot of difficulties if they want to stay in Japan. They hold nursing qualifications in Indonesia, but that is not enough for them to have permanent jobs in Japan. All of the Indonesians will be required to take and pass a Japanese nursing exam in 2012. Those who do not pass will have to return to Indonesia. Despite several months of Japanese language training, they have nowhere near the fluency that will be required to pass such an exam, so they must study Japanese while working.
The Yomiuri has a detailed article up about the foreign nurse program. Here is an excerpt:
On Saturday, an additional 104 Indonesian nurses are scheduled to begin working at hospitals nationwide. In addition to those nurses, about 450 nursing-care workers and nurses from the Philippines are scheduled to arrive in the country to fill jobs at health-care facilities.
Two male Indonesian nursing-care workers–Razes Mejintro, 25, and Anwar Kusumayadi, 23–began working at Katorean Home, a health-care facility for the aged in Sodegaura, Chiba Prefecture, in late January.
“Do you remember my name?” Razes asked 79-year-old Fumi Omori, a female facility resident.
“It’s hard to remember your name,” she said.
After the conversation, Razes wrote his name in katakana on a sheet of paper and recited it with Omori.
The facility requires its Japanese staff members to coach the Indonesians on a one-to-one basis. The Indonesian workers were given the homework assignment of memorizing the names and faces of the 40 residents they had been assigned to care for.
Both Razes and Anwar were nurses in Indonesia. However they will have to learn how a Japanese nursing-care center operates, including duties such as operating wheel chairs, changing diapers, cleaning the facility and bathing residents.
Despite having studied Japanese for six months, the new workers are still learning the language. They take notes on words they do not understand and review them during their breaks.
Miki Takanashi, a nursing-care worker who is in charge of coaching the two Indonesians, said she had tried communicating with them using hand gestures and English.
“We’re trying our best to communicate with them,” she said.
Read the rest on the Yomiuri’s site!
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