Nursing graduates urged to be agents of change

Graduates from the Lutheran School of Nursing [LSON] in Madang were challenged to serve with diligence and change the complacency trend currently practised in the public service sector.

Governor for Madang, Ramsey Pariwa, addressed the sixty-six graduands last Friday during the LSON 4th Graduation and said incompetent service is dragging the country down.

"As you graduate now and leave this school and go out, you are no longer a student. You are going out there to join those who are already out there in the workforce.

" It is the 50 years anniversary of this country that you are graduating and walking out during this transitional point in time.

"I want you to be effective, efficient, and diligent in your conduct. If it means wake up and attend to your work early, please do so and finish on time," he said.

Governor Pariwa said most of the public servants do not give the full daily 8 hours to the government service.

"This is one of the reasons why our country has never developed fully," he said.

"These are the challenges of the workforce that you will be stepping into tomorrow when you leave this place today, and I dont want you to join them.

Governor Pariwa added that education is a priority sector for the national government, and his administration has been prioritizing education since he took office.

"The National Goals and Directive Principles and five key pillars guiding our nation's development, and the first one is 'Integral Human Development' and this is why you are sitting here today," he said.

Lutheran University of Papua New Guinea Chancellor Dr Eric Kwa, in his speech, stressed that the health sector in PNG is still short of health workers, indicating the huge void yet to be filled with qualified professionals and challenges faced, especially in the most remote areas

"The health sector is the second largest sector in the government apart from education and requires more than 25,000 medical professionals to fill in all the vacancies.

"However, we currently have over 11,000 positions that are currently being filled, and there is still a need for more medical practitioners to fill the available positions.

"So I hope you get out there and also educate our people so this will make your work easy. As they say, prevention is better than cure." He said.