The Tamilnadu Government has taken a decision to increase 1000 seats in the nursing colleges attached to the nine medical colleges in the state.

At present, the state offers only 750 seats in nursing three-year degree course in the government run medical colleges, and will soon increase it to about 2750 seats. The decision is part of the attempts to find a solution to the huge shortage of trained and qualified paramedical staff in the Government hospitals, according to J.R.Vijayalakshmi, Director of Medical Education, Tamilnadu.

Further, the Government has sanctioned an additional intake of another 1000 nursing seats in various nursing institutions in the state. The authorities have identified and assessed the nursing schools in places like Tirupur, Ooty, Coonoor, Ramanathapuram and Dindigul to explore the possibility of increasing the seats, and the additional seats will be distributed to these institutions.

The Government has also approved to start a three-year B.Sc. Nursing course at the Madurai Medical College, only the second of its kind course in the state, other than the B.Sc.Nursing course offered by the Madras Medical College.

She said the Government moots mandatory re-registration of all nurses as part of the attempts to identify trained hands who were not in service or profession for various reasons. The move is to induct maximum available qualified hands to serve the Government hospitals. The Government has also launched a skill enhancement scheme involving workshops and training in specialized areas to horn the skills of the serving nurses, said the official.

Though exact statistics are not available, the hospitals in the state, especially Government run hospitals, face severe shortage of quality trained paramedical staff to meet the requirements of modern day healthcare.

Sources note that lure of the glamour and the decent perks and packages offered by the private healthcare corporate hospitals and other private hospitals were the main reason for the nursing graduates opting for private sector, than that of the nursing jobs available with the state Government.