The Andhra Pradesh Government Nursing Association (APGNA) has demanded creation of a separate Nursing Council in the state to resolve their problems. At present, nurses are completely dependent on doctors for resolving their problems. In view of this, the Nursing Association feels that a separate council for nurses should be created to deal with problems of nurses in the state.
Major problems facing the nursing community in the state include lack of recognition and failure to create specialisation in the nursing sector. Apart from this, lack of proper training facilities and low pay package are also major concerns of nurses in the state.
Therefore in order to have an effective and strong platform that could help the nurses to resolve their problems, the Andhra Pradesh Government Nursing Association has demanded creation of a separate nursing council for Andhra Pradesh. According to Sujawati, former general secretary of APGNA, the state government should come forward and create a separate nursing council on lines of West Bengal and Karnataka. “We require a separate council to deal with the problems of nurses. Currently we are completely dependent on doctors. Like West Bengal and Karnataka, we require a separate council where an individual from the nursing profession can decide on our problems,” says Sujawati.
Because of various problems like low income, lack of recognition and failure to create specialisations in the nursing sector, more and more nursing professionals prefer to go abroad after completing their nursing course and internship. The huge migration of nurses from India to other countries abroad has created a shortage of nurses in India. Health observers say that this is affecting the healthcare industry in India.
Apart from a few corporate hospitals having retention and recognition policies, most nurses have to handle clerical jobs and follow-up works and less patient care jobs, leading to dissatisfaction. In foreign countries (especially USA, UK and Europe) nurses are trained to take special care for different surgical conditions and critically ill patients. In India, however, most nurses do not get this exposure as they are always struggling with patient burden.
“In India patient care is doctor-centric. In patient care, the inputs of nurses and assistant doctors are a part of the protocol. While the inputs of assistant doctors are taken, inputs from nurses are rarely taken,” observed a senior doctor from London.