UNEQUAL DISTRIBUTION OF NURSES IN INDONESIA: A PERSPECTIVE FROM A NURSE

Indonesia has produced a significant numbers of nursing schools. The latest information from the Directorate General of Higher Education, MoEC, is that there are 733 nursing schools consisting of 368 schools provide a vocational nurse training, and 385 provide professional nurse training, that represent a large increase over previous years. It is expected that these nursing schools producing a huge number of nurses is able to fulfill the need of society in Indonesia. But, as the matter of fact, nursing shortage is still happening in Indonesia, in terms of unfulfilled position. Minister of Health (MOH) estimates that the need of nurses were 87,874 nurses of 118,788 health workers were needed at hospitals; and an estimated 10,146 extra nurses are needed at primary health care level. This condition tells that the unequal distribution is a big challenge in Indonesia. The unequal distribution of nurses is a crucial issue to address due to the health care needs of the people, especially in underserved rural and remote area. Ministry of Health indicated that there is 87 districts that located within 27 provinces (of 33 provinces) in Indonesia are left behind regarding access to basic health care services. There are also 92 districts in the outermost small islands and 34 small outlying islands do not have even basic services. Therefore, it leads to the question, “Where do Indonesian nurses stay?” Nurses actually prefer to migrate in the big cities in Indonesia such as in DKI Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, East Java, and North Sumatera. It is because the job opportunities are available in those cities while the technology has a great influence for nurse to move. In this regard, to cope with the unequal distribution of nurses, Government of Indonesia initiate the contract scheme program or “Pegawai Tidak Tetap” (in Bahasa Indonesia) to distribute not only nurses, but also medical doctors to the