Nurses, Midwives associations urge Govt to create robust health workforce

Mumbai: A national meeting was held recently to commemorate the completion of 1 year of the #NurseMidwife4Change campaign, where the Indian Nursing Council (INC), All India Government Nurses Federation (AIGNF), The Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI), Society of Midwives-India (SOMI), and Jhpiego came together to discuss issues affecting the nurse and midwives and the progress made so far.  

The campaign, #NurseMidwife4Change was launched in 2021 by Nursing and midwifery organizations to bring forward the role of nurses and midwives and reinforce their contribution to the health care system of the country through education, service, and leadership. As per an earlier media report in the Indian Express, the campaign was led by the All India Government Nurses Federation (AIGNF), an umbrella organization of nursing associations, Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI), Society of Midwives-India (SOMI), and Indian Nursing Council (INC). The campaign reportedly began to support nurses and midwives to lead, learn and strengthen the profession. 

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Some of the important discussions held during the meeting include investment in education, staffing of nurse midwives, nursing leadership, nurse-patient ratio, workload, long working hours, and double shifts. They discussed prioritizing investments to strengthen them and help nurse midwives as leaders, educators, and collaborators. 

The appropriate ratio determined by World Health Organization (WHO) is 3 nurses per 1000, whereas India has 1.7 nurses per 1,000 population. This poor ratio is causing increased workload, long working hours, double shifts, and others leading to low quality of treatment, and it was observed that this problem must be taken care of in order to create a robust health workforce in the country. 

The panellists discussed systemic policy reforms which aimed at building a health workforce for the future aimed at achieving universal health coverage. They held that there is a need for representation of the nursing workforce in leadership roles across India, which also includes setting up nursing directorates across all states to ensure better governance and policymaking, which would eventually help in creating a nursing workforce as an independent professional body and build a quality workforce of nurse professional, reports the India Education Diary.  

The WHO's Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery 2021-2025 states policy priorities that would help countries to ensure that their midwives and nurses optimally contribute to achieving universal health coverage and other health-related goal. Dr T Dileep Kumar, President of- the Indian Nursing Council, said, "Nurses play a crucial role in the healthcare industry, and their importance cannot be undermined. Over the last two decades, India has made significant progress in plugging the gaps in the overall availability of nurses. Due to several concrete efforts by the Government of India, the country witnessed a doubling of the nursing workforce – from 0.8 nurses per 1000 population in 2000 to 1.7 in 2020. However, this number is still less than the WHO norm of 3 nurses per 1000 population, creating a need for systemic reforms. Through #NurseMidwife4Change, we have been able to initiate a conversation around the issues faced by our nurses and midwives and are hopeful of a measurable impact in the coming months."

Prof (Dr) Roy K George, President of the Trained Nurses Association of India, said, "The #NurseMidwife4Change campaign has been successful in mobilizing voices to support and uplift the nursing profession. As representatives of different nursing bodies, we are grateful to the Government for introducing draft guidelines to improve the working conditions of nurses and acknowledging their hard work in creating a Healthy India. We are committed to supporting Government's efforts in this direction."

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