Wadhwani Foundation’s Skill Development Network (SDN) has signed a MoU with The Association of Health Providers of India (AHPI) and Narayana Health (NH) to network and share the nursing training courses co-developed with NH. These e-modules will be available to all of the 10,000+ hospital and healthcare providers whom AHPI serves to upgrade the skills of their new and existing nursing staff; hence improving their quality of patient care. AHPI, with support from SDN and NH will facilitate information and awareness of these publicly available e-modules.

Dr. Giridhar Gyani, director general, AHPI said,“Most of the time, a patient in a hospital is in the hands of nurses. Through this training, we further our aim to build capacity in Indian health systems with focus on safety and affordability. This will increase industry growth and employment and create a ready labour pool. In addition to promoting and rolling out this initiative, AHPI will also create certifications for demonstrated skills across member institutions’ employees.”

These courses will be available online to all the member institutions who wish to register through a link on the AHPI website. Information will be disseminated through AHPI newsletters and websites to their members. In addition, focused information sessions will be held in AHPI chapters throughout India as well as their annual Global Conclave in February 2015 in Hyderabad.

Dr. Ajay Kela, president & chief executive officer, Wadhwani Foundation expressed his views on signing of the MoU, said, “India’s healthcare sector faces a shortage of 1million nursing staff.  By providing scalable technology enabled job skills training to large segments, this partnership between AHPI, NH and Wadhwani Foundation’s SDN will go a long way to address this skills gap. This programme also aligns with Wadhwani Foundation’s vision of skilling India by leveraging technology and transformative learning techniques.”

SDN will produce, enhance and modify the experiential, peer-driven, interactive, and learner-centric course content provided on an online platform with easy access and by using videos, games, simulations, and group activities. It will also monitor online usage and share reports while providing for helpline support to online access and courses. NH has provided all domain inputs and validation for the course content in line with the industry best practices and will actively participate in the information and training campaigns to drive this to hospitals across the nation.

Dr. Rakesh Verma, head, learning and development, NH added, “I am excited about taking forward our partnership with Wadhwani Foundation to the AHPI network of more than 10000 hospitals. It gives a sense of pride to all of us at Narayana Health that the course content co-produced between us and Wadhwani Foundation, will have impact at national scale.”