The Hindu : Karnataka News : $33-million grant for Nursing Council

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Sunday, Feb 17, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka

$33-million grant for Nursing Council

Special Correspondent

55 institutions identified to provide training in counselling
Nearly 15,000 nurses to be trained annually in AIDS care in five years

BANGALORE: With a $33 million aid from the Geneva-based Global Fund for AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM), the Indian Nursing Council (INC) will train one lakh nurses across the country in AIDS care and treatment.

T. Dileep Kumar, Nursing Advisor to the Union Government and Chairman of the Indian Nursing Council (INC), said here on Saturday that the GFATM had in principle agreed to release $33 million.

The INC, which would be the principal recipient of the aid, was in the process of signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the GFATM, Mr. Kumar told presspersons here on the sidelines of a national conference on “Theory Application in Nursing Practices,” organised by the M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Nursing Education and Research.

The INC has identified 55 institutions in the country to inter alia train nurses in providing Anti-Retroviral Therapy (ART) and counselling AIDS patients. At least 15,000 nurses would be trained annually for the next five years. The INC would provide funds to the 55 institutions for capacity building, Mr. Kumar said.

With the help of the Clinton Foundation, the INC will soon set up the National Institute of Nursing at the Tambaram Sanatorium in Chennai, said to be the biggest AIDS care and treatment centre in the country, to facilitate research in the field of nursing with regard to AIDS patients.

The seed money for establishing the institute would be provided by the Clinton Foundation. Around 25 per cent of the seats at the institute would be reserved for students from abroad, who would be selected by the World Health Organisation, Mr. Kumar said.

Under the 11th Plan, a whopping Rs. 2,900 crore has been allocated for the development of the nursing sector. Utilising these funds, the INC would establish centres for excellence in all the States to improve nursing education and training. The council would spend Rs. 20 crore on each centre, he said.

The centre for excellence would provide postgraduate courses in nursing and conduct continuing education programme (CEP) for nurses. The roaster system would be followed for selecting nurses for the CEP. The State nursing councils would renew the licences of only those nurses who participate in CEP, Mr. Kumar said.

Besides, the INC would set up four regional centres to monitor the functioning of the State centres.

The regional centres would conduct Ph.D. programmes and provide specialised training to nurses in ten disciplines, including cardio-thoracic and neonatal care, he said.

Satellite facility

After inaugurating the two-day seminar, space scientist and Rajya Sabha member K. Kasturirangan said that the INC should make use of the EDUSAT satellite facility to train nurses in rural areas.

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