There are 149 Indonesian nurses joined a provisioning before joined competency test as a requirement for working in Japan. Sending some nurses to Japan is Indonesia Japan Economic Partnership Agreement Program ( IJEPA ) which started in 2008. This year is the third generation with 200 nurses quota. They will attend seven selection steps, they are competency test, psycho test that will be held by Board of Indonesian Worker Protection and Placement (BNP2TKI), interview, aptitude test, Medical Check Up and Japanese Training which will be held for 2 months in Indonesia and 4 months in Japan.

Before test competency, there will be a provisioning by the head of Health Human Resource Empowerment and Development Board, dr. Bambang Giatno Rahardjo, MPH, in BPPSDM office, Jakarta, on March 1, 2010.

Dr.Bambang, in his speech, said that a chance for Indonesian worker especially a nurse who work in abroad as an acceleration effort to control “Temporary Surplus” of workers. Beforehand the sending of health worker to abroad has been done by some countries, such as Europe, Middle East and ASEAN.

The sending of nurses to abroad, especially Japan was through IJEPA program which is aimed to make Indonesian nurses able to do transfer knowledge and technology and able to implement those things in their working area after they come to Indonesia, said dr.Bambang.

IJEPA program applied health worker placement pattern through Government to government (G to G), it used Private to Private (P to P) program. G to G program has a strong law basic because it become Japan and Indonesia government responsibility so that nurses can do their right and duty based on commitment (MoU) that has been made before. It also included protection if they get inappropriate the way of treating. Different with P to P program which has no a strong basic law whether institutional or organization.

It is added that, government has a duty to protect its citizen by doing some selection based on competency fit to Japan government needs which has a high moral and nation integrity values. While  Japan government has a duty to maintain bilateral relation between countries so that nurses that located in some hospitals still under Japan government control, said dr.Bambang.

This competency test provisioning is hoped can give a benefit, clear explanation and give broaden knowledge for nurse candidate who will work in Japan. It is hoped that all participants can fill three criteria: professional, politeness, and respect the custom and have a high nationalism, emphasized by dr. Bambang.

According to the head of Center of Foreign Health Resource & Profession Empowerment, dra. Meinarwati, Apt, M.Kes, Japan government and people give a big attention and support to Indonesian nurses.

Participants who followed competency test were from DKI Jakarta, Banten, West Java, Central Java, East Java, Yogyakarta, East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, Central Sulawesi, North Sulawesi, North Sumatera, Riau islands,  South Sumatera and Lampung. Nurses who attend the provisioning consist of : 66 males and 83 females with educational status : 19 people are state graduation and 130 people are private graduation with educational level, 123 people are Diploma III, 11 people Strata 1 and 11 people are Ners, said dra. Meinarwati.

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