Policy Brief Concerning The Regulations of Foreign Health Personnels

My name is Musa Saho a student of Master of Science in nursing study program, specialization in nursing leadership and management, Universitas Indonesia. I am writing this policy brief base on the regulations concerning foreign health personnels as stated in the new health law number 17 of 2023 from article 246 to article 257. According to the new law foreign domestic graduates can only work or practice under the Indonesian ministry of health when they sat to the health regulated competent test and pass. However, the health regulated competent test consist of two areas.

• Assessment of administrative completeness
• Assessment of practical abilities

Foreign nationals who are supposed to take or sit to the competence test must first pass the assessment of administrative completeness before proceeding to the assessment of practical abilities. Once the individual fail the assessment of administrative completeness he/she would not be given any chance to continue with the assessment of practical abilities and he/she would not be given the STR ( Registration certificate) and SIP ( Which is the License certificate) as stated in paragraph (3) letter b of the new health law number 17 of 2023. Practical abilities as declared in paragraph (3) letter b includes equalization of competence and competency test. Competency equalization as stated in paragraph (5) aims to ensure compliance with competency standards for medical and health personnels in Indonesia. The competent test results comes in two forms;

• Competent
• Not yet competent

In the event the that the competence test result is positive as indicated in paragraph (7) letter a, then the individual would now have to follow the necessary steps to acquire the registration certificate and the license certificate which are STR and SIP respectively. In the event that an individual fail the competent test as declared in paragraph (7) letter b, he/she must return to his/her country of origin in accordance with the provisions of statutory regulations. In article 24A it is stated that specialist and subspecialist of medical personnels with recognized certificates and certain levels of competence from overseas or abroad with at least five years of working experience are excluded in taking the competence test exam base on the following;

• The individual must be a graduate from overseas with high educational standards and from a recognized institution.
• The individual must be an expert in his field of study proven by certification and competence
• It is mandatory for health service facilities under which foreign nationals are working under to facilitate and ensure that language and training activities are carried out for them. This can improve their communication skills and also reduce the tendencies of language barrier between healthcare providers and patients.
• According to the new health law number 17 of 2023, it is stated in paragraph (7) letter b that if an individual fails the competent test he/she would not be given a second chance to re-sit the exam again. In my own perception this can discourage or lower the interest of international nurses pursuing for their career in Indonesia.
• The recommendation I am suggesting to be added in the new health law number 17 of 2023 is that, international nurses should be given at least a second chance if they happened to fail the initial competent test.