Seventeen nursing students, who are in a bind over the breaking of their contract with a nursing school, have today lodged a complaint to the Human Rights Commission (Suhakam).

They told Suhakam that their school - the Damai Service Hospital Nursing School - have failed to provide them with adequate training and despite this, they were made to provide professional healthcare at a hospital linked to the school.

"We had to work in the maternity ward - give injections without guidance," said nursing student Rita Mohd Rizal.

A visibly shocked Suhakam commissioner N Siva Subramaniam asked: "You have to do all this - even if you're not qualified?"

The students - who have been suspended by the school pending investigations for going to the media over their complaints - are bonded with a RM30,000 bill to the Damai nursing school for a two-year course to qualify as assistant nurses.

They said that there were no senior nurses to tutor them from February to June this year and yet they have to discharge their duties at the Damai Service Hospital in Jalan Ipoh * [correction - see below] , where they were doing their practical training.

No qualified to work

A maternity nurse and midwife, who only wanted to identify herself as Mrs Indra, was also in Suhakam today to back the students' claims.

"They (the nursing students) don't have a head nurse to teach them, and I have to take care of them. They are young and as such couldn't communicate well with the doctors. But I'm a midwife nurse, not a tutor nurse.

"The students don't even know when the oxygen in the tank is depleted. When they remove the intravenous drip, the patient bleeds a lot.

Indra lamented that conditions in the hospital's maternity ward were dreadful.

"Every month, there are 70 babies in the maternity ward plus their mothers. I've miscarried twice in the last four years. The stress is enormous," said Indra, adding that her complaints to the doctors for more staff and a full-time tutor nurse fell on deaf ears.

Indra said that she eventually had to resign from the hospital, despite having to breach her RM20,000 contract with the nursing school.

Nursing student Saritha Kumar said she and her colleagues were often faulted for failing to carry out their hospital duties properly.

"It's mental torture ... not knowing what to do in the delivery room when we have to assist the doctor to deliver babies," she said.

Is it unlicenced?

The students eventually filed a complaint to the Higher Education Ministry after the school's administration failed to take action on their grouses.

According to Rita, the ministry had found that nursing school did not have the proper licence to train nurses as it did not have the required study aids and that its practical labs were incomplete.

A Higher Education Ministry official, when contacted by malaysiakini today, would not confirm if the nursing school was unlicenced.

"We don't have the full information," he said. However, the ministry's website did not include the Damai nursing school under its approved and licenced higher education centres.

Meanwhile, a Health Ministry official said the school's curriculum was under investigations and declined to comment further.

Regina Selvarag, a former staff at the nursing school, told Suhakam that the nursing school did not have a licence since 1992.

As a result almost all students have to take an extra year of study - three years instead of two years - in order to obtain professional accreditation.

The school's advertisement stated that they would be qualified assistant nurses after a two-year course.

Serious case

Suhakam commissioner Siva, who met the students, considered the case as "serious".

"These students have no licence to train nurses, and yet they have come out with advertisements (for the school)," he said.

"We have asked the management of Damai Hospital to join us on Sept 9 for a meeting, but they refused saying that they were too busy," said Siva.

When contacted, Damai Hospital's human resource officer Elly Rabeah said the students were invited for a meeting last Thursday, but they did not show up.

She added that it was inappropriate for the students to go to the press and Suhakam with their complaints.

"The children were given an opportunity to state their case, but they didn't turn up."

* Correction: It has been pointed out to us that the hospital concerned is not the Damai Service Hospital in Jalan Ipoh but the Damai Service Hospital in Melawati. We apologise for the mistake and for any inconvenience caused to the doctors and staff of the Jalan Ipoh hospital.