NEW DELHI: India will set up 157 additional government nursing colleges at a cost of Rs. 1,570 crores in co-location with existing medical colleges over the next two years in 27 states and union territories, announced Union Health Minister Mandsukh Mandaviya on Wednesday.
He made the announcement after the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, which was chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The step will add approximately 15,700 nursing graduates every year.
For each nursing college, financial assistance of Rs.10 crore would be provided, the health minister said.
He said there is a great imbalance in the country as 40% of Indian nursing colleges are in four southern states; while on the other hand, there are 13 such states where there are no nursing colleges.
Citing examples, he said, in Bihar, there are only two government nursing colleges, besides 10 private ones. Now, Bihar will get 8 nursing colleges.
In the same manner, Uttar Pradesh currently has 10 government nursing colleges, Rajasthan 11, Madhya Pradesh 11, and Jharkhand 1. Now, under the new policy, these states will get as many nursing colleges as there are medical colleges, he added.
So now, with the cabinet approval, the maximum number of nursing colleges, will be set up in Uttar Pradesh where 27 new nursing colleges will come up. This will be followed by Rajasthan (23), Madhya Pradesh (14).
Both Tamil Nadu and West Bengal will get 11 new nursing colleges.
“The initiative aims to address the geographical and rural-urban imbalances in the healthcare sector, which have led to the skewed availability of nursing professionals and impacted healthcare services in underserved areas,” he said at a press meet after the cabinet briefing.
The establishment of these nursing colleges will provide a significant boost to the availability of qualified human resources in healthcare.
Co-location of these nursing colleges with medical colleges will allow optimal utilisation of the existing infrastructure, skill labs, clinical facilities and faculty, he said.
The proposal to set up 157 new nursing colleges was made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman during her budget speech in February.
“This initiative is expected to provide better clinical exposure to nursing students and will also result in better care and service provision for patients in medical colleges. Use of green technologies will also be explored in these Nursing colleges and will be adopted as per relevancy to ensure energy efficiency and reduction in carbon footprint,” the statement said.
The minister said that the services of Indian nurses are considerably recognized in foreign countries, so it is important to bring Indian nursing education to par with global standards in order to facilitate their mobility and better employment opportunities.
“They are recognized as highly skilled professionals and drive the healthcare delivery system, but their numerical strength is below global norms and needs to be adequately enhanced,” he added.
He said that there are 24,000 Indian nurses in the UK, followed by the Gulf countries where 20,000 nurses are employed. While the US has 16,000 nurses, Australia has 12,000 and Canada employs 5,000 nurses.
He said there are three types of nurses - auxiliary, general nurses, and BSc nurses. General nursing requires education of 12 + 3-year training. BSC nursing, on the other hand, requires education till 12th (Science) + 3 and a half years of training + 6 months internship, making it four years in total.
The minister said demand for BSc nursing is on the rise given the growing number of healthcare facilities in the country. “That's why new colleges will be opened to cater to both domestic and international needs,” he added.
India has 1.18 lakh BSc nursing seats, as compared to 1 lakh 6 thousand MBBS seats in the country, he added.
The government has increased the number of medical colleges and subsequently increased MBBS seats in the last few years. There is a substantial increase of around 71% in medical colleges from 387 before 2014 to 660 as of now.
Further, the number of MBBS seats has almost doubled and Post Graduate seats have more than doubled since 2013-14.
The initiative was also taken as a part of the national mandate for Universal Health Care (UHC) and will help in the attainment of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Reforms in the regulatory structure for nursing education to meet the emerging requirements in the sector are also under consideration, a statement issued by the Union Health Ministry said.
The government plans to complete the project within the next two years and has laid out detailed timelines for every stage of planning as well as execution of the project.
