India has 2.5 million registered nurses and midwives who are responsible for the country’s 1.3 billion population, which is grossly inadequate. According to the experts, India needs more than 4 million nurses by 2024 to meet the prescribed WHO norms. Many more of these health workers may have relocated abroad for lucrative pay packages or retired. Nurses are the most significant asset of any healthcare facility. The key importance is to Implement a live register replacing the nurses Registration and Tracking System (NRTS), pass the National Nursing & Midwifery Commission (NMMC) Bill and the repeal the India Nursing Council Act 1947.
The nursing and midwifery profession is witnessing a large-scale brain drain from the country due to poor salary, working conditions and absence of a proper career pathway, and out-dated systems of professional governance. Despite forming a large part of the healthcare force, nurses and midwives continue to be short-staffed across the nation leading to poor nurse-patient ratio, increased workload, long working hours, double shifts which eventually lead to poor quality of treatment. The optimum nurse-patient ratio recommended by the Centre and the Indian Nursing Council has not been implemented and as a result, one nurse is looking after 20 to 25 patients. It is adversely impacting the credibility of India’s healthcare system.
