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First IMU MBA in Healthcare Management Graduate Shares Her Joys and Challenges

02 Dec 2020

Chung Shin Fung, also known as Chel to her friends, is a Quantity Surveyor in a private company that deals with construction and healthcare subsidiaries which led her to explore healthcare related support services. Needing the competence to manage the company and embarking on her interest in managing a new business in aged care nursing services, Chel decided to pursue an MBA. In her search for a suitable MBA, she found that IMU’s MBA in Healthcare Management is best suited for her to enhance her management knowledge with comprehensive and quality education in healthcare. More importantly, this is an MBA programme that is designed for those who are in the management level of healthcare and healthcare related industries. Chel graduated with an MBA in Healthcare Management in November 2020. She is currently the Operation Manager in NKK Venture Sdn Bhd, overseeing the Construction Division and Healthcare Supplies Division. She is also one the directors of Integrated Care Management Sdn Bhd which manages aged care services. Chel shares her IMU journey in an online interview. “My choice of choosing IMU to pursue my MBA was the right choice. IMU has given me a great opportunity to gather immense knowledge not only from the learned lecturers but also the experienced high-profile guest lecturers we were introduced to, both in class and field visits. These invaluable learnings will sharpen my skills and competence in the business healthcare industry I have set my feet in. Essentially, I feel that this programme has helped me to improve my administrative skills especially in financial and operational management of my work.

An IMU MBA in Healthcare Management graduate shares her experience,

To me, it is a very comprehensive programme and it is a programme that is able to guide students to gain the necessary entrepreneurship and leadership skills. The programme can be completed in a minimum of 15 months with 12 modules and a management project. To be frank, since I am not working in a hospital environment and some of the assignments do relate to this  environment especially in terms of operation management, I did face some difficulties. However, I am lucky enough to have all my classmates here to share their experience in their hospitals and I was able to learn from them. Although completing the MBA in a short duration of 15 months in full-time mode is challenging, the programme has structured modules which helped me to manage my time to cope with my busy working schedule and the study time. This means that everything has to be well managed and I have to be very disciplined. I used to work till late prior to my studies but because of the studies, I learnt to manage my working hours more efficiently so that I can spend time for my assignment, Management Project (MP) and studies during the night. I am not so worried about exams because I think that the working experiences gained in my careers and the lectures helped in the basis of the theory and the practicality of the modules. On top of that, I had already set my topic of the management project in the beginning of the programme so that I will have one year of research and information search in order for me to complete the management project. Of all the time spent, I can sometimes find time during the weekends to spend a day out with friends and family for some relaxing sessions. Giving back to the community is an important aspect of studying at IMU. As part of the MBA programme, we were required to be involved in a community project. The IMU Cares community project for my MBA group was initiated during our Organisational Leadership and Operations Management modules in October 2019. We visited my elderly care centre, Kanaan Home and activated a vegetable planting programme for the elderly.  It is a very good programme initiated by IMU Cares as the project can provide students with the awareness and inspiration on their initiatives, caringness and responsibilities to societies in need. During my MBA, I find that the lecturers and facilitators were also very helpful and resourceful whenever the students are facing a problem. It is with these lecturers’ encouragement and the topic chosen in my management project that gave me the motivation to continue and complete my studies. The management project topic reflects my intention to explore the environment in the aged care industry and gain knowledge on the population needs in the future of the aged care industry. Lastly, I would like to thank my supervisors and all the lecturers who had advised me and helped me in the completion of my Management Project. I also would like to wish all the best to my classmates in their Management Projects and success in their careers.”

Chel is truly an inspiration and her advice to her juniors would be
“To keep up the good spirits and you can overcome the difficulties during your studies. Do seek for help if you need to, and of course time management is super important especially for us who are working adults.”

In the future, Chel hopes to give back to the society in her career of social entreprenuership in aged care services. “In my opinion, the Malaysian elderly deserve a better environment of healthy aging, hence, I hope that they can enjoy their ageing life independently, freely and with more dignity.”

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