Number of nursing institutes offering UG courses rose by 36% in 9 years: Mandaviya
Currently, there are 5,203 nursing institutes in the country, including 715 government institutes.
The number of nursing institutes offering undergraduate courses increased from 1,641 in 2014 to 2,229 until March this year, a rise of 36 per cent, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told the Lok Sabha on Friday.
Similarly, the number of UG seats also rose from 83,192 to 1,16,595, an increase of 40 per cent during the same period, Mandaviya said in response to a question.
Currently, there are 5,203 nursing institutes in the country, including 715 government institutes. ''The number of nursing institutes providing undergraduate courses increased from 1,641 in 2014 to 2,229 in 2023 (upto March, 23), reporting an increase of 36 per cent and similarly graduate seats also increased from 8,3192 to 1,16,595 reporting an increase of 40 per cent during the same period,'' Mandaviya said.
There are 35.14 lakh registered nursing personnel in the country with a population ratio of 2.06 nurses per 1,000 population, he added.
The distribution of nursing colleges/institutes is attributed to various geographical and socio-economic factors influencing the availability and accessibility of nursing education in different regions of the country, the minister said. ''Hence, to address skewness in the distribution of the nursing colleges, to increase the number of nursing personnel, and to improve the quality of nursing education being imparted, various steps have been taken by the government,'' he added.
Listing the steps, Mandaviya said the government has relaxed land norms for the construction of nursing schools or colleges and their respective hostels.
The requirement of a 100-bedded parent hospital has been relaxed for hilly and tribal areas, he said.
The distance requirement from a school to its nearest hospital has been relaxed from 15 km to 30 km. However, for hilly and tribal areas, the maximum distance is 50 km, he said.
Besides, the student-teacher ratio for MSc (N) programme has been relaxed from 1:5 to 1:10 and student patient ratio for nursing institutions has been relaxed from 1:5 to 1:3.
Adding to the list of relaxed norms, Mandaviya said that nursing admission is now open to married candidates as well. A maximum of 100 nursing seats will be given to colleges having parent hospitals with 300 beds, without insisting on a medical college, he said.
The scoring eligibility criteria for admission for diploma and degree courses have been relaxed by 5 per cent, the minister added. Super-speciality hospitals can now start MSc (N) courses without offering undergraduate programmes, he said. In the 2023-24 budget, it was announced that 157 nursing colleges will be set up in medical colleges which have been approved under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for the 'Establishment of new Medical College attached with existing district/referral hospital'. This will add roughly 15,000 nursing seats in the government sector, Mandaviya said.
Under the Centre's scheme 'Development of Nursing Services', grant-in-aid is given to states and UTs to upgrade schools of nursing into colleges of nursing, he stated.
