Nurse to population ratio

There may be slew of steps being taken and in fact are being taken to improve the healthcare infrastructure in India and improvements in many areas having or taking place, still one of the important factors in respect of the nursing staff paints a dismal picture – 1.96 per 1000 nurse- people ratio in any way cannot be claimed to be anywhere close to being satisfactory but at best ”manageable” anyhow in our healthcare institutions. The fact of the matter, however, is that nurses make two -thirds of health workforce in the country. Their role is much important being a link between healthcare sector and patients and as more facilities are planned and provided to patients, the role and responsibility of nurse too increases. However, for every 1000 persons in India not even 2 nurses are available vindicates the grievances of nurses to resolve the shortage of the nursing workforce in the country.
Many a time, we come across the grievances expressed by the Nursing staff unions that not only are they over burdened with looking after more patients than they could normally and satisfactorily do but their working hours in many instances are not specified or are subjected to long working hours’ duty. See the other side, very often there are workplace health hazards, workplace mental violence and even non-nursing roles to be faced by them but biggest problem is that of acute shortage of staff, paying reasonably good salaries and recognising their noble role and rendering of services to ailing patients thus rendering a boost to their morale. In the meantime, more skilled training provided to and more professional courses undertaken for more candidates in Nursing Institutions across the country can result in rolling out of more skilled, trained and dedicated nursing persons so that the said ratio can move on to better levels from the present one.