A massive recruitment spree for qualified nurses is on in Bangalore by some of the placement agencies from the US. An acute shortage of nurses is being experienced in several US hospitals during the last few months. A survey conducted by the US Government Accounting office (GAO) revealed a shortage of 1.40 lakh qualified nurses in that country and it estimates an additional deficit in the next couple of years.

The US is now looking at India, as Indian nurses are preferred over their other nationals in Asia in terms of professional skills, commitment, job retention and proficiency in English language.

Dallas-based Nurse Finders, a recruitment firm has recently picked up over 40,000 nurses for over 30,000 hospitals in the US and it has entered into collaboration with Nurses Anytime, another US-Based nurse hunting outfit to recruit nurses from India for the US.

Dr. Vijay Madala, co-founder, Nurses Anytime said that with this more Indian nurses will get an opportunity to work at sophisticated hospitals in the US. They will be paid on par like their US counterparts, informed Dr. Madala. Nurses Anytime will offer free training to select Indian nurses to equip them for a test of spoken English as a Foreign Language and a National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses which is mandatory for them to get their registered work permit in US.

According to Dr. Devi Shetty, managing director, Narayana Hrudayalaya, "There will always be a shortage of US professionals in the US because they get trained at the age of 21 years and when they get married they quit the job and join work due to financial constraints."

Nurses Anytime has selected 100 working nurses who have passed out from the colleges in Karnataka for two-month free training programme. "The selection is based purely based on performance, language skills, depth of knowledge and quality of experience", he informed.

The company targets to employ over 100 nurses a month by 2003, while it might increase the target as it locates more nurses with suitable aptitude.

The Nurses Anytime has designed a comprehensive approach in selecting quality nurses from India. "We offer suggestions to these nurses to equip them get through the qualifying tests," he said.

Incidentally, leading hospitals like the Narayana Hrudayalaya, Manipal Hospital, Wockhardt Hospital and Heart Institute in Bangalore are training nurses for the Indian segment. The heart care major Narayana Hrudayalaya has a nursing school in collaboration with Children Heart Link US. This helps us to upgrade the skills of our nurses and also provide them with much-needed exposure of US hospitals when they go there on an exchange programme, said Dr. Devi Shetty.

Wockhardt Hospital and Heart Institute has tied up with Harvard Medical International through its parent company Wockhardt Limited to set up hospitals and improve the healthcare standards across the country. There is a continuous exchange of expertise between the cardiac teams of Wockhardt and Harvard Medical School [of which Harvard Medical International is a self-supporting arm]. Besides, the clinical expertise, the Harvard team will also assist Wockhardt in improving nursing care and training its health care managers to manage the hospitals more efficiently and create more patient-centred activities.

Wockhardt Hospital, the first hospital in Karnataka to be recognised by the Karnataka Nursing Council, has commenced a one-year post basic diploma course, in cardiovascular and thoracic nursing. This is currently conducted by a select few hospitals across the country like Sri Chitra Heart Institute in Thiruvanantapuram and Escorts Heart Hospital in New Delhi.

The course aims at developing the nursing expertise to meet the special needs of heart patients. "It is not that Wockhardt has diversified into the education field but as nurses are the one who transact with patients every second of the day, we felt it was important to help increase their knowledge, improve the quality of nursing experience and enhance competence in the critical areas of treatment," informed Vishal Bali, general manager, Wockhardt Hospital and Heart Institute.

During the one-year training, the nurses will be imparted knowledge both in theory and practicals in state-of-the-art cardiac procedures, emerging medical treatment for cardiac patients and new generation technology used to utilised to treat cardiac diseases. Nurses will also be trained in terms of delivery and care.

Admission to the programme is through an open all-India exam with minimum qualification in B.Sc or GNM [graduation in nursing management] with two years work experience. Only 10 students who are specialised across the country have been selected for this specialised programme. Only candidates who are highly motivated to serve in the highly specialised field of cardiology will fit the programme, added Bali.