‘India ranks 75th among 133 developing countries with regard

to availability of nurses’ New Delhi, Aug 31 (PTI) India ranks 75th amongst 133developing countries with regards to the number of availablenurses and country needs an additional 2.4 million nurses tomeet the growing demand, a new report today said. The FICCI – EY report titled Nursing reforms: Paradigmshift for a bright future released today said that only 0.7doctors and 1.7 nurses are available per thousand people. "India ranks 75th amongst 133 developing countries withregards to the number of nurses, with only 0.7 doctors and 1.7nurses available per thousand people. "The country needs an additional 2.4 million nurses tomeet the growing demand. Despite being a major supplier of thehealth workforce, the healthcare industry in India issuffering a wide gap," the report said. It noted that the nursing sector in India continues toexperience challenges in terms of availability, distributionand retention with the lack of a rewarding career progression,individual welfare and income parity being cited as keyreasons, amongst others. Additionally, alternative careers with better pay-outsand less stressful work environments and opportunities tomigrate overseas tend to better attract nurses, it said. The report also highlighted the need to revise thenursing curriculum – still governed by the Indian Nursing Actframed in 1947 and revised in 1948 – to make it relevant tothe current healthcare industry requirements. "Additionally, there exists a manpower skew and unevenopportunity of nursing studies across the country, with almost52 per cent of the nursing institutions concentrated in thesouth," it said. It said that there is an urgent need for nursingtransformation at the national and state levels in both thegovernment and private sectors that can change the practice ofnurses, expand current nursing roles while continuing tocreate new ones and open up opportunities for nurses toparticipate in shaping the future healthcare delivery system. The report carves out 30 key suggestions to strengthenthe nursing sector, which primarily deal with policy reforms,human resource development, strengthening the nursingpractice, and education. PTI TDS IKA RGIKA