The government of Jammu and Kashmir should take serious action about the raising issues and concerns of nurses in J&K and also fill all the posts lying vacant in all the hospitals of the region so that some unemployed nurses would get employment, and the future of nursing should be saved in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
Nursing in Jammu and Kashmir is becoming the new B.Tech of J&K, as there are very few jobs for nurses, and thousands of nursing posts are vacant in different government hospitals of J&K.
According to a manpower audit report of the Health and Medical Education Department J&K 2018, J&K is “severely short” of nursing staff. The report also states that the doctor-patient and nurse-patient ratio in J&K is the lowest in India. Against a requirement of 3193 nurses as per the IPHS norms, there are only 1290 sanctioned posts of staff nurses in J&K, with a deficit of 1903 plus posts that need to be created, the report notes.
There is also an urgent need for creating staff for the proposed Nursing Colleges to train a requisite number of good quality nurses in the state, and the new nurses are recruited under different academic arrangement programs, and the permanent recruits being freshers are not as experienced as the incumbent nurses who were told to discontinue. The government of Jammu and Kashmir is not taking any serious action on this rising issue in J&K for years. New-age highly trained and professional nursing students, registered nurses from J&K, are given the most preference to work outside J&K and abroad and less preference for working in J&K as there is no scope in nursing in the union territory.
In the Union Territory of J&K, every year almost 100 plus government and private nursing colleges produce thousands of nursing professionals. Every year, Jammu and Kashmir Board of Professional Entrance Examination (JKBOPEE) offers admission in B.Sc Nursing through CET, in which 44 government and private nursing colleges offer a 4-year undergraduate course B.Sc nursing with a total of 2500 seats, and almost 90 government and private nursing colleges in J&K offer admission in Diploma Courses GNM, ANM, FMPHW, MMPHW, with a total of 4711 seats on a merit basis. In addition to this, thousands of nursing students are studying in other states of the country, mostly in Punjab. After the completion of their courses, they prefer to work abroad rather than in J&K.
Nursing in J&K is getting huge attention as parents are taking it as another career option for their children who fail in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET), but they are unaware of the rising concerns of nurses and nursing students in J&K. Indirectly, parents are not aware of the mental stresses and depression faced by their children due to the heavy workload from colleges, clinical postings with 100% attendance, and other career-related issues.
The government of Jammu and Kashmir should take serious action about the raising issues and concerns of nurses in J&K and also fill all the posts lying vacant in all the hospitals of the region so that some unemployed nurses would get employment, and the future of nursing should be saved in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.
The writer is student of B.Sc Nursing (2nd Semester) at Ramzaan College of Nursing, Galandar Pulwama. He can be reached at sh************@***il.com