Rex breaks new ground for male nurses in Malaysia after Huddersfield PhD

A University of Huddersfield PhD graduate is breaking down barriers about male nurses in his native Malaysia.

Dr Rekaya Vincent Balang is now Senior Lecturer at the Department of Nursing of University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS), having achieved his PhD in Nursing at Huddersfield in 2017.

He is the first male nurse from the region of Sarawak ever to complete a PhD, and one of only a few in Malaysia overall. His success has also helped to address the commonly-held perception in his country that nursing is a female occupation.

Rekaya – also known as Rex – submitted his doctoral thesis entitled ‘An Exploration of the Elements of Professionalism within Nursing Documentation in Malaysia’ in 2017, at the end of what he describes as "an amazing three-and-a-half years” in Huddersfield.

Having attained his nursing degree from UNIMAS in 2001, Rex moved into Community Mental Health Nursing two years later. His first taste of studying overseas came when he studied for his Master’s at the University of South Australia, followed in 2013 by the start of his time in Huddersfield.

By this point, Rex had taught at UNIMAS for 13 years, covering a range of subjects including professional nursing, nursing research, nursing management and mental health psychiatric nursing. But his time as a nurse has helped inform his current work where he imparts his experience to those entering the profession.

Taking a holistic approach

“The PhD has helped me realise the importance of documentation in nursing,” Rex declares. “You also need to look at the patient holistically, rather than from just a specific medical or psychological perspective.

“Cultural and social factors must be considered by a nurse when treating patient. I take this approach from all the way back from working as a community mental health nurse to passing it on to students now.”

While he may be the first male nurse with a PhD in Sarawak, a region of Malaysia on the island of Borneo, he admits that his time on the front line of nursing began to break down many barriers.

“Something I realised from my time as a novice nurse to now is the acceptance of male nurses in the profession is a lot more open now. People are more accepting of male nurses in Malaysia. Patients do not look at a male nurse with shock so much nowadays.

Changing perceptions about male nurses

“Historically, I was one of the first male nurses to work in Sarawak. It’s not just in Malaysia but globally nursing is seen a female profession so I caught people’s eyes if they saw stories about a male nurse here, especially one doing a PhD.”

Rex also says that his time in Huddersfield helped to change his approach to study, while his cultural horizons were also broadened by living in the area for over three years and his involvement in activities as varied as handball, gospel singing and as a church server.

“The nature of the study was totally unexpected in a good way. It was stressful in the beginning, but the learning culture was different – I had to find my own answers. A PhD is about the love of the knowledge, as my supervisor told me! I had to read more and be more responsible for finding the answers to my questions.

“I learned a lot – not just about the PhD but local life and culture, which I really immersed myself in.

"People in Yorkshire are lovely – really warm, they don’t fake how they feel!”

Professor Rob Burton, now at Griffith University in Singapore, was Rex’s supervisor at Huddersfield and has praised how Rex has built on his PhD.

“Rekaya has a passion for nursing and settled into Yorkshire life pretty quickly. In the early days he needed some guidance in how to approach his work, but soon settled well into independent study. 

“Since then we have maintained contact and met up at events and conferences organised by Singapore and Malaysian Nursing boards in which Rekaya had a major contribution.