Opinion Express View: Why it is good to have more nurses

The government’s decision to set up 157 nursing colleges is a step in the right direction. Despite the proven capabilities of the country’s nurses, the profession hasn’t always received its due. The move will add more than 15,000 nursing seats. More than 40 per cent of the country’s nursing colleges are located in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. With Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh getting a major share of the new nursing colleges, the skew towards the southern states will be addressed to an extent. Much more will, however, need to be done to equip the country’s healthcare facilities with the caregiving expertise they regularly fall short on. The government has rightly been giving emphasis on setting up hospitals and medical colleges, including AIIMS, in places that are in desperate need of such infrastructure. The private sector has also been increasing its footprint in the healthcare sector. These hospitals will require a regular supply of nurses.

The WHO recommends three nurses for a population of 1,000 people. According to official estimates, India currently has less than two nurses for 1,000 people. But this is a conservative figure. A FICCI-KPMG report last year reckoned that the number of allied healthcare professionals needs to go up eight times to meet the country’s needs in the next 25 years. Increasing the number of nursing professionals is, however, just one part of addressing this imperative. An equally important requirement is equipping these caregivers with the skill-sets required in a medical set-up which keeps throwing up new challenges even as old problems remain unresolved. For instance, a lot of the acrimony between patients and healthcare professionals, that keeps surfacing every now and then, can be resolved if the nursing cadre is given proper communication training. Equipping caregivers with knowledge of the rapidly changing technologies in medical care is another imperative. Of course, addressing many of these challenges is part of on-the-job training. But given the pressure on frontline workers in the country’s hospitals, it is important that nurses are taught to work autonomously of physicians in several aspects of patient care. Experts believe that institutes in the country currently do not provide nurses with adequate training to take up leadership positions.

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Migrant nurses — most of them from the Southern states — have been, for many decades, a major source of remittance. These professionals are much sought after in hospitals in Europe, the Americas and West Asia. Investing in nursing education will only enhance the revenue-generating capacity of potential migrants. The new colleges announced by the government on Wednesday should be seen as a beginning in this endeavour.