The Hindu Business Line : Nurses look to greener pastures

THERE is a different brain-drain happening in the country and this one is not as high profile as when young engineers or management professionals leave the country. But the reality is, there is a shortage of nurses in India and hospitals here are not losing them just to West Asia, the traditional lure.

"There has been a faster rate of nurses leaving the country, over the last couple of years, for jobs in the UK or the US," observes Mr Vishal Bali, Vice-President Operations, Wockhardt Hospitals. India turns out the highest number of trained nurses in the world and increasingly "mature nursing professionals are opting out of the system and following growth opportunities."

When experienced hands leave the system, it throws up huge challenges for hospitals.

According to an ICRA report on the Indian healthcare sector: "Hospitals have been responding to this constraint by operating at below norm nurse to patient ratios, stretching nursing staff working hours and even recruiting partly skilled nursing personnel."

The list of countries taking pick from India's pool of trained nurses is growing from the traditional "Gulf region" or West Asia, to the UK, US and even Africa, healthcare industry analysts told Business Line.

There is definitely a shortage of nurses in the country, particularly "specialised nurses", points out Dr Shakti Gupta, Additional Professor, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

"The demand from other countries is a recognition of the skills of our nurses, however, there are not too many courses for specialised training, to deal with emergency situations, for instance."

There is a four-year training programme for general nursing, but not much to speak of for disciplines such as intensive care, geriatric or old people or oncology (cancer-related), he points out.

According to the norm, there needs to be one nurse for every patient in the intensive care unit.

The ratio increases to one nurse for three patients or a nurse for five patients, depending on whether the hospital is a teaching or non-teaching institution, respectively, says Dr Gupta.

Industry analysts say the crux of the issue is that there needs to be more institutions to train nurses.

"The high attrition levels are also because there is limited upside to nursing as a career. While doctors are paid well in private hospitals, than in a Government institution, the case is reversed for nurses, who are better looked after in public hospitals. The present shortage may not yet be crippling large hospitals in big cities, but is felt in small towns or rural areas," he points out.

To have supply match the demand for nurses, Wockhardt's Mr Bali says that institutions should increase the training inputs for nurses and get them into the system faster.

Wockhardt has an advanced one-year specialist programme, he adds.

And since good nurses create great healthcare institutions, hospitals should have educative and remunerative strategies to retain nurses.

More than being in the interest of the hospital, it would be critical to the survival of the patient.

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