To address the acute shortage of nursing staff in the country, the Government is exploring an option to make it mandatory for anyone seeking approval for a new medical college to also attach plans for establishing a nursing college.
Sources in the Union Health Ministry said the Director-General of Health Services (DGHS) Jagdish Prasad mooted the idea at a recent high-level meeting chaired by Union Health Minister JP Nadda and attended by Ministers of Social Welfare, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation 9 HUPA) and Child and Welfare and senior officials from various ministries.
The proposal of making it mandatory for the medical colleges to have nursing college came up following concerns about severe shortage of human resources particularly paramedical staff including nurses in the health sector.
Sources said that Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi expressed concerns at the existing norms for establishing nursing colleges and suggested its review to meet the shortage of trained nurses staff. The proposal was advanced by Prasad’s idea was endorsed by HUPA Minister Venkaiah Naidu, who also sought changes in the MCI norms for establishing medical colleges to address the issue of shortage of human resources in the medical sector in the country.
It was felt that the owners coming up with a proposal for new medical colleges will have no major financial implications in case they are asked to open a nursing college too.
Presently, India has 2,000 nursing diploma schools, 1,200 nursing degree schools and 281 MSc nursing colleges. Annually, the country produces around 60,000 nurses, according to a Government data. However, over 20 per cent of this number head to foreign shores every year, leaving the local patients at the receiving ends.
Experts say that some of the issues related to nurse retention still remain to be tackled -- job insecurity for the contractual staff, low pay and lack of a conducive work environment.