Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (TU/CN)
Mangalore, Oct 6: ‘People should not have an inferiority complex about nursing as a profession. It is a noble profession for nurses work as an alternate to a mother’, said Ramachandra Gowda, medical education minister, on Sunday October 5.
Addressing the gathering after inaugurating a private nursing college building at Sakthinagar, he said that as many as 80,000 nursing diploma holders graduated from nursing colleges every year. Still, India is facing an increasing shortage of nurses in the hospitals due to attractive overseas employment opportunities. He added that about 20 per cent of experienced nurses work outside the country.
Expressing pleasure about Karnataka’s contributions to the field of nursing, Gowda said that South Indian states contributed more than 80 per cent of nurses to the country, especially Kerala. Most of them trained from Karnataka’s institutions. People should come forward to pursue nursing as it is a great service to mankind.
‘A committee headed by C M Gurumurthi has suggested imposing a three-year ban on overseas employment in the field of nursing to combat the shortage of nurses in the country. As many as 1,670 MSc Nursing seats have been sanctioned during this year. Currently, the government has been spending $ 35 billion on nursing education and this is expected to rise to $ 75 billion in 2012’, added Gowda.
Dr Ramananda Shetty, vice-chancellor, Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, praised the medical institutions in the coastal region for quality education. He said that they are a role model to other colleges in the state. According to him, sanctioning of more colleges would result in huge competition and it would lead to survival of good institutions. It will help students obtain quality education.
Former MUDA chairman Dr Madhava Bhandari, MLA U T Khader, MLA Mallika Prasad Bhandari, deputy mayor Shakeela Kavu, and Dr Prasad Bhandari, also spoke. District in-charge minister J Krishna Palemar, presided over the function.