Nurses and midwives form the cornerstone of healthcare delivery and are the unflinching pillars on which the healthcare system rests. Yet, key issues facing this critical workforce have been long overlooked which has resulted in a hesitancy to join this workforce.
Arunachal is facing an acute shortage of nurses in various cadres. In 2020, the Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI) Arunachal Pradesh branch had informed that there were only 599 nursing officers against the required number of 2630, while only 14 senior nursing officers were there against the required 139 senior nursing officers.
The nursing community is the backbone of healthcare delivery and such a shortage will ultimately compromise the quality of services provided. The covid-19 pandemic has shown us the importance of having a robust healthcare system and healthcare professionals are at its very core. Many district hospitals across Arunachal have been upgraded and ICU wards have come up. While this is good news, this will remain a futile exercise without ICU-trained nurses.
India is in need of 4.3 million more nurses by 2024 to meet the World Health Organization (WHO) norms. With 1.7 nurses per 1000 population, India falls short of the WHO recommended rate of 3 nurses per 1000 population. The optimum nurse-patient ratio recommended by the Centre and the Indian Nursing Council (INC) has not been implemented and as a result, one nurse is looking after 20 to 30 patients and this is adversely impacting the credibility of India’s healthcare system.
This indeed is a sector which can absorb the tens of thousands of unemployed people. There is a need to step up and make better investments in education, training and for the government to create more vacancies for the nursing population. Key issues such as working conditions, remuneration etc must be addressed for the overall growth and development of this professional cadre.
International Nurses Day (IND) celebrated on 12th of May to commemorate the birth anniversary of the Florence Nightingale and to mark nurses’ contributions towards people’s health, must also be an occasion to reflect on various issues confronting the nursing community and to find solutions.