HealthCare Global Enterprises (HCG) sees the need to create a team of dedicated oncology trained nurses to improve treatment outcomes in India. The country is also facing a huge shortfall of nurses. The nursing administrators are faced with the dual challenge of increased nursing staff attrition and unwillingness to learn newer techniques like cancer care.

The current nurse to patient ratio in India is around 1:2000. In the case of oncology nursing, the figure is abysmally low. There are required standards for oncology nurses based on patient ratio for stable patients, critical care cases, unstable patients, emergency and operation theatre, Antonia P, AGM, Nursing, HCG Cancer Care told Pharmabiz in an email.

Dedicated oncology nurses can assess pain, help patients manage chemotherapy symptoms, psychological distress, pressure ulcer, thrombophlebitis and ensure safe medication administration, she added.

India has 1.8 million cancer cases living with five years of diagnosis and over one million new cases reported annually. The country has 31 dedicated cancer hospitals with a mere 1,000 trained oncologists and a doctor-patient ratio of 1:2,000.

While India is reporting a dismal shortage of dedicated oncology, it also warrants professional psycho-oncological intervention. Therefore oncology nursing teams need to advance their skills in modern cancer management modalities too, said Antonia.

Various methods of nursing manpower requirements are being planned based on the number of patients, mean time required for nursing care activity, average frequency of nursing care activities per patient per day, determination of average nursing time per patient per day, acuity of patients allocated, etc.

Nurses are the nerve centre of healthcare. “India is facing a brain drain of nurses. The closure of nursing colleges with low admission rate because candidates opt for other lucrative professions has further widened the gap between nursing education and practice”, said Antonia.

A large number of cancer cases are undetected, under-diagnosed resulting in higher fatality. Though the government is working to achieve a doctor-patient ratio of 1:1000 by 2021, from the current 1:2000, cancer detection requires nurses, she said.

Indian hospitals are on par with international cancer care centres. In addition to oncologists, support staff like onco-pharmacists, oncology nurses and palliative care specialists are needed. The oncology nursing staff for each 24-bed oncology unit operating round the clock comprises one head nurse, nursing specialist with 13 nurses working on 8 hour shifts, 5 days a week. In fact 43 per cent of cancers can be controlled by nurses because they interact most with patient attendants at the hospitals, she said.

Since oncology nurses provide a better health experience for patients, hospitals will need to devise a cancer reform strategy to improve care and ensure its prevention. Private cancer hospitals can team up with state governments to increase awareness in the population on its prevention at the school level. Here nurses can ensure that good living and food practices are advocated.

In order to offset the cancer nurses shortfall, HCG offers oncology specific training at all its centres besides providing the same at Adyar Cancer Hospital, Regional Cancer Centre, MIOT Hospital, Tata Memorial Hospital to name few. “Our infrastructure, expertise of medical, surgical, radiation and paediatric oncologists to provide the practical aspects of nursing, recognition and affiliation by Indian Nursing Council and accreditations by NABL, NABH and CAP has also attracted candidates from the South Asian countries,” she said.