May 12^th 2008

International Nurses Day (IND), observed on 12th of May every year, is celebrated on also the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale, who is remembered as ‘The lady with the lamp’ for her undying commitment to the cause of healthcare.

It is also a day when the world applauds the nursing fraternity for their 24x7 service to promote health. As healthcare demands are witnessing an upward trend, the theme for IND 2008 seeks to develop the role of nurses worldwide in “Delivering Quality, Serving Communities and Leading Primary Health Care”, whilealso addressing the challenges to meet this objective.

Rightly, nurses are the backbone of the healthcare system. As keen facilitators of healthcare, they are the pivot in the ‘Hospital-Doctor-Patient’ paradigm. Whether it is preventive care, home care or hospital care, nNurses are an indispensable part of healthcare. Not only do they carry out prescribed treatment measures, they also provide the balm of comfort and advice to patients during troubled times.

But, is the Nursing Industry truly in the pink of health?

Healthcare demands are growing by the day. This poses newer challenges to the nursing profession, in the form of staff shortages, increasing number of patients, and the need to continuously improve deliverables and quality, amid constraints of time and resources. In a nutshell, the nursing fraternity is grappling stress from all quarters.

Dearth and Demand

The growing dearth of nursing professionals has placed a huge demand on the existing nursing workforce, resulting in deficient treatment, increasing the possibility of errors.

A recent report, complied by Dr. Peter Buerhaus and colleagues, in March 2008 has highlighted the problem of shortage of registered nurses (RNs) in The United States. The report has predicted a shortfall of 5, 00,000 nurses by 2025 if there is no improvement in the present trend. The situation might also worsen due to the healthcare pressures exerted by the aging baby boomer population.

In India, Healthcare is a sunrise industry, which has led to the growth of many hospitals. Big names like Apollo and Fortis have embarked on major expansion plans necessitating a huge workforce. Unfortunately there is a great imbalance between the demand and supply of nurses to effectively meet the objectives of such expansion plans.

The workforce crisis is manifold due to the high marketability of Indian Nurses in the overseas arena; India is losing its skilled nursing force to foreign hospitals. According to Crisil research, the consistent outflow of nurses to other parts of the world is going to give the nation one of its worst nursing shortages by 2011. According to Mr. Sudhir Nair, Head of Crisil Research, the scenario is disastrous for India, as Indian Nurses are hugely marketable abroad, fueled by the fast track corporatisation of healthcare.

One possible solution to tide over this potential crisis, according to Wockhardt Hospital’s CEO, Mr Vishal Bali, is to have trained paramedical staff to chip in to meet the growing demands of healthcare.