‘India should create nursing practitioners posts like the United Kingdom’
Kolkata: State health secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam on Thursday said that nursing professionals should be committed to the 3 pillars of nursing — Care, Compassion and Commitment.
These are the integral qualities of the nursing profession.
Nurses with their uniforms should work like a force under their leadership, Nigam added.
He was addressing 8th Nursing Conclave organised by CII in the city on Thursday. The central theme of the conclave, its 8th edition, was “Care, Compassion & Commitment”. A White Paper on the theme was also unveiled by Nigam. “In the present scenario, our country demands much of the advocacy should come from nurses. As a need of the hour, India should create ‘nursing practitioners’ posts like the United Kingdom,” he added.
Nigam further asserted that the future of the young generation of caregivers is bright and to be relevant in the future, nurses need to understand newer technologies, modern equipment, telemedicine needs and latest trends in healthcare. Once completing the education, nurses should upgrade their knowledge to remain relevant with the changing healthcare industry. Nursing profession is the foremost important profession for the healthcare department, he said.
He further pointed out that around 85,000 health teleconsultations take place every day in West Bengal. Nigam further pointed out: “Our country is relatively young and will age, in the times to come. We are on a fast track of development by being a populous country, the demand for healthcare will rise. We require skilled manpower in healthcare and infrastructure development capacity.” Rupak Barua, Mentor, Healthcare Task Force appreciated CII for holding the Nursing Conclave for 8th year. He outlined that the Global Healthcare market is growing at 10.4 per cent CAGR between 2023-2027 and in India the healthcare market is growing by 22.5 per cent as of 2022, which shows our Indian healthcare market is growing much faster. The Bengal government proactively increased the budget of health and family welfare by Rs.18494 crores for 2023-2024.
As per the latest report of Indian Nursing Council, as on March 31, 2023, West Bengal has 1800 ANM seats, 8631 GNM seats, 5355 B.Sc. (Nursing) and 460 M.Sc. (Nursing) seats. “Additionally, West Bengal has 69709 ANM (Auxiliary Nurse Midwives), 76318 RN & RM (Registered Nurses &
Registered Midwives) and 12854 LHV (Lady Health Visitors),” he added.
