Sunday, November 13 2005 10:52 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Mumbai: India should gear up to fill the global shortage of 12 million nursing staff as it is a trillion dollar business opportunity as well as a chance for uplifting millions of families, healthcare experts say.

India should not lose out to the Philippines as that country is becoming one of the leading human resource bank for nursing staff to the world healthcare sectors next only to Kerala, said Mehul Mehta, Vice-President for Business Strategy and Development at Harvard Medical International, (HMI), Boston, US.

"The global shortage of nurses is about 12 million and it is estimated that it is a trillion dollar business opportunity and India should take up the challenge and all state Governments should be encouraged to promote nursing training courses to deal with the most modern healthcare system," Lloyd Nazreth, General Manager of Wockhardt group of hospitals, Mumbai, said.

"Kerala in India still dominates the nursing staff human resource to world hospitals but the Philippines is becoming a big provider of human resource in nursing sector as even their doctors are shifting to nursing profession," Andre A Jeon, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of HMI told sources here.

The Indian department handling human resources should become aware of the 'cultural shift' in nursing sector, Jeon said adding, training of professional nurses should be at par with doctors as the nursing is integral part of specialized tertiary care system.

"The status of nursing profession should be recognized by the doctors and should treat them as equals," Mehta said adding the training and retraining of nursing staff as per requirements for various departments like intensive care units, operation theatres, diagnostic centers and post-operative care should be made mandatory.

Jeon said leadership quality among nurses have to be developed and the curriculum and the training of the nurses should include this.

"Even in US, the doctors do not treat nurses at par and therefore, it is important that while training them, they should be provided opportunities to develop leadership quality, Jeon added.

India is very much in short of nursing institutions and steps should be taken by the Ministries of Human Resource Development and Health and Family welfare at national and state levels, Nazareth said.

"In Wockhardt, when we hire new a qualified nursing staff, we give special training to them to become the integral part of any of the specialized department in our super-specialty hospitals," he said.

Jeon pointed out there was also a shortage of teaching staff in nursing colleges in US and India could use this opportunity to train teachers for nursing colleges in India as well as for other countries, including US.

"Currently, the shortage is filled with direct import from the Philippines," Jeon said.