T

his refers to '€œJapan to increase RI nurse quota in 2015, (The Jakarta Post, Aug. 26).

Indonesia should actively seek and collaborate with more countries so that our nurses can be placed and hired overseas. There is no doubt that if well-trained, our nurses could provide competent and compassionate care.

This is a great alternative to the domestic help we export in abundance. One appealing feature of Indonesians nurses and physicians are known for in the US and Europe, based on personal observation, is that they provide care with more understanding.

They are able to empathize and therefore take more time with patients. This is an important component in care giving in holistic medicine. To achieve bilateral agreements with a host country, a special visa and exceptions to labor laws may have to be negotiated.

Exporting trained and selected nurses overseas is a resource that Indonesia has greatly underdeveloped and underemployed.

Personally, I have spoken to officials of the Indonesian health and manpower and ministries and our consulates, but they weren'€™t able to grasp the importance of this underutilized resource. I strongly support and promote this idea of exporting skilled nurses and am glad that Japan will increase the number of our nurses.  

James Waworoendeng
Jakarta