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However, it is estimated that 10.43 lakh nurses would be required by 2012 in the country. Taking into account 3.72 lakh nurses available and 3.13 lakh nurse likely to be trained with the existing capacity, there would be shortfall of 3.50 lakh nurse.
The following steps have been initiated to bridge the shortfall: -
(i) Establishment of 132 Auxiliary Nurse Midwifery (ANM) and 137 General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) schools in those districts of high focus states which are not having both these training programmes.
(ii) Establishment of 6 Colleges of Nursing at the sites of AIIMS like institutions one each in Rajasthan, Bihar, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Uttarakhand.
(iii) Indian Nursing Council has also taken proactive measures to encourage opening of more nursing institutions. A copy is at Annexure.
Annexure
PROACTIVE MEASURES TAKEN BY INDIAN NURSING COUNCIL TO ENCOURAGE OPENING OF MORE NURSING INSTITUTIONS
(i) Student patient ratio has been relaxed from 1:5 to 1:3
(ii) The land from 5 acres has been relaxed to construct building of 54,000 sq. ft. for School/College of Nursing and Hostel.
(iii) Relaxed norms for teaching faculty to start B.Sc.(N) Programme.
At least 2 M.Sc. (N) faculty to be available·
Qualification and Experience of the Nursing Teachers has been relaxed up· to 2012.
· Sharing of teaching faculty for both Diploma and GraduateProgramme.
(iv) Relaxation for opening M.Sc.(N) programme. Super specialty Hospital can start M.Sc. (N) without having under graduate programme.
Relaxation of student teacher ratio for· M.Sc (N) programme has been relaxed from 1:5 to 1:10
Essentiality certificate to· open M.Sc. (N) programme from State Government is not required for those institution which are already having Indian Nursing Council recognized programme like Diploma or Degree.
· If an institution is having INC recognition for one programme then there is no need to have Essentiality Certificate for starting another nursing programme.
(v) Admission for Nursing allowed for married candidates.
(vi) Age increased for Teaching Faculty up to 70 years.
(vii) Maximum of 100 seats will be given to those parent hospitals with 300 beds without insisting Medical College.
(viii) Distance from school to hospital has been relaxed from 15 km to 30 km
(ix) Eligibility Criteria to admission i.e. (Marks) for Diploma and Degree has been relaxed 5% (GNM – 40%, B.Sc. – 45%).
This information was given by Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Shri S. Gandhiselvan in Lok Sabha
4 Comments
I m srongly against the relaxation of eligibility for nursing program. the authorities need to think about the standard of nursing and the risk involved in taking in students below standard.
Blindly implementing plans and policies to increase Nurses wont improve the current status of the Nurses working or studying in various institutions across India.
The main grass root issue that need to be tackled is to retain nurses in India.
This can only be achieved by increasing the benefits of job like high pay and acceptable working hours.
Same goes for the schools and colleges. In the education sector this will have an antagonist effect. The relaxation of the norms by INC has encouraged mushrooming of even more bogus and low level educations. This has led to focus on primarily churning out Large Quantity or Nurses rather than Quality Nurses.
The ends(goal) are commendable but the means to that end may lead to a backward trajectory for the image of nursing as well as quality of care that will be provided by nurses who will not recieve quality training. Nursing is a profession with a body of scientific knowledge which took a long while to be accepted and all the efforts of nurses who have gone before us will be wasted when nursing becomes just a techinical skill without intellectual growth.
it is essential to provide job opportunities for all the nurses who have completed their graduation. the estimation looks good but the real scenario and the salary scale for nurses in our country is too bad that no students are coming forward to do the course.the need of the country can be meet by properly channeling the human resources available rather than losing them to the foreign countries. relaxing the norms will not serve as solution for the existing problems. look into the real [pictures .