Indian Nursing Council (INC) has received $33 million aid from the Geneva-based Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) for capacity building and training of nurses. In this regard, the INC has chalked out a plan to train one lakh nurses for AIDS care and treatment.

In order to utilize the funds to the maximum, the INC has identified 55 institutions in the country to train nurses in providing Anti Retroviral Therapy (ART) and counselling AIDS patients. Nearly 15,000 nurses would be trained annually for the next five years, according to T Dileep, Nursing Adviser to the Union Government and chairman of the Indian Council of Nursing.

There is also a serious shortage of nursing staff in the country. According to the Health Ministry estimates, India would require 10.43 lakh nurses by the end of 11th Plan in 2012. The INC would provide funds to the 55 institutions to improve the infrastructure also, he added.

Efforts are on with the assistance from the Clinton Foundation, where INC is gearing up to establish the National Institute of Nursing at Tambaram, Chennai which is the biggest AIDS care centre in the country to facilitate research in the field of nursing dedicated to handle and counsel AIDS patients. The seed money for establishing the institute would be provided by the Clinton Foundation. Around 25 per cent of the seats would be reserved for the students from abroad who would be selected by the World Health Organization.

In addition, under the 11th Plan a whopping Rs 2,900 crore had been allocated for the development of nursing sector. With this the INC would establish centres for excellence in all the States to improve nursing education and training. The Council would spend Rs 20 crore for each centre.

The centre for excellence would provide post graduate courses in nursing and conduct continuing education programmes (CEP) for nurses. The roster system would be followed for selecting nurses or the CEP, informed Kumar.

The State nursing councils would renew the licenses of only those who would participate in the CEP. Besides INC would set-up four regional centres to monitor the function of the State centres.

INC would also approach the Department of Space to discuss the modalities for utilizing EDUSAT satellite facility to train nurses in rural areas.

Of the 9 lakh nurses registered with the various State nursing councils, only 3.6 lakh were active in the profession. Around 20 per cent of the nurses headed to foreign shores and the rest were not justifiably distributed throughout the country. States of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan face an acute shortage of nurses.