In the Health Care sector, nurses are a very important segment. Nurses are care-givers or ministering angels to patients. Doctors treat; nurses care for. Doctors diagnose; nurses provide healing touch round the clock.
The World Health Organisation’s recommendation is three nurses for a population of 1,000 people. Bu in India there are only around 1.7 nurses per 1,000 people. Keralatops the list of most nurses in the country
with 9.6 nurses and midwives per 1,000 population, Next is Andhra Pradesh (7.5 per 1,000). Mizoram comes third (5.6 per 1,000).
Goa has the least number of nurses and midwives at 0.5 per 10,000 population, while the second and third worst ratios are in Uttar Pradesh (0.8 nurses and midwives per 10,000) and Bihar (1.9 per 10,000) respectively.
Even with our national shortage of nurses, India has been one of the largest exporters of nurses to the rest of the world. Indian nurses are said to be sought after all over the world.
There are said to be many reasons why nurses are choosing to go abroad. Indian nurses are paid a pittance for the amount of work they do in India. The basic salary in most hospitals, be it private or government hospitals, is around Rs 15,000 to Rs 18,000. En eight-hour work shift often gets stretched. Working conditions can be harsh and frustrating under harsh or overpowering matrons and administration.
According to the 2021 report of the Indian Nursing Council, India has 5,162 nursing institutes. 87% are privately managed; 13% are government-run institutes. Nursing training by private agencies is a big commercial enterprise.
More than 60% of doctors and 50% of nurses/midwives in India are employed in the private sector. While two-thirds of the country’s population is rural, only a third of the health workforce is reported to be available in rural areas. Preference to city-based hospital and health care centres is one reason why rural areas are neglected.
Florence Nightingale was said to have great influence over nursing in India. She had an eye for the nursing of the civilian population, though she was interested in the Army sector. She established the “Nightingale School for nurses”. In 1871 the first school of nursing was started in Madras. Dr. Alice Marval was said to have started the first nursing school for women at Saint Catherine’s Hospital in Kanpur.