‘Nursing school in bad shape’

THE Lae School of Nursing is in a rundown state, principal Manasseh Moya says.
Moya said yesterday it lacked learning facilities and accommodation for staff and students.
He said the school established in 1964 had trained more than 1,500 health professionals.
Moya said although health ministers and secretaries, provincial administrators and governors had come and gone, they all had neglected the institution.
The college was amalgamated in 2003 as the PNG University of Technology (Unitech) School of Nursing, offering three-year diploma courses for health workers.
But, he said it had only 12 teaching staff. Four live on campus, two at Unitech and six in settlements.
Eight males, among the 45 students, lived off campus and the school had to spend K60,000 on rental for them.
“The college has proven itself in difficult circumstances to train and impart quality knowledge and skills, including professional patient care attitude to nurture health workers but it has been neglected,” Moya said.
Speaking at the student pledge ceremony held on Wednesday at the college mess, Moya asked what had the Morobe provincial government provided to improve the standard of the college in the past 48 years.