Nurse Practitioner in Critical Care and Midwifery in India
NURSE PRACTITIONER IN CRITICAL CARE (POST GRADUATE- RESIDENCY PROGRAM) and Nurse Practitioner in Midwifery
My “opinions” and “views” are purely based on my educational qualification (BSc Nursing), professional and personal experience in India and abroad.
I assume both ideas have been floated to strengthen and enhance the cognitive ability and psychomotor skills to specialize in the tertiary care and in the field of midwifery by nurses while keeping in mind of the health of 1.25 billion people of India. Which is contextually and ideally looks great and magical idea!
NURSE PRACTITIONER IN CRITICAL CARE (POST GRADUATE- RESIDENCY PROGRAM)
Nursing Practitioner Course, the draft is of 63 pages! However, I found it, the content of the draft is not well thought or not based on the thorough and scientific research. Moreover, the author or authors of the draft failed to express the intent and motivation of this draft and also it fails to incorporate the beliefs of the constitution of India. In my personal view, this draft just described how the course would look like or might contain. Also, I could find in this draft that authors were stressing more, that it would be more “clinical “(80%) than “theoretical “(20%). I am really clueless, how can the policymaker be so juvenile, who fails to recognize the difference between “cognitive ability” and “acquired psychomotor skills”. How can you be learning critical care concepts and skills pertaining to, without sound foundational concepts of critical care? By the way, skills can be acquired by doing things repetitively but you must have clarity of the concepts, which you need research, study, understand and practice. Which, usually consumes time.
Authors also failed to recognize existing cadre of healthcare workforce and existing courses prescribed by Indian Nursing Council. Why there is so much rush in creating another cadre of a workforce for tertiary care delivery while we as country miserably failed to meet the Millennium Development Goals in the field of Primary Healthcare and still struggling to prevent preventable deaths across India. Though, health being the state subject still this draft or INC proposes the standard and uniform curriculum for whole India! That itself is a questionable idea by constitutionally, and also states must be allowed and given adequate support to have sound health policy by the states while having control and regulating authority of healthcare professionals of the state across the board.
Further, please have look at the references quoted by authors of the draft, you merely find any Indian author or academician for critical care. Which means most of the concepts proposed for Nursing Practitioner Course are based on the academic work of foreign authors, then I would suspect such curriculum may not be suitable or applicable for Indian people. So, I would propose to the policymakers put a pause on this thought for a while and consider how effectively we can optimize the existing workforce while taking into consideration of the Governments vision, policy, and people’s expectations.
Moreover, look at the infrastructural challenges of existing in Primary Healthcare (PHC), most of the studies have expressed categorically that the challenges of the PHC are
1. Accessibility - not just physical but also psychological,
2. Availability – Physicians are not willing to work in a rural area and urban slum area
3. Affordability – though we say public healthcare is free in reality it has cost that’s bribe
And, how we are underutilizing the nursing workforce in India, we call nurses as “ staff nurses”, “senior sisters grade I and Grade II” or “Auxiliary Nurse Midwife” think again, do these names signify any competencies or educational qualification? Hence, I believe as a society we are not recognizing the efforts of the people who are studying for multiple years, appearing for multiple exams and sleepless nights to pass those exams just to be called as “staff nurse” and “senior sister grade I and grade II” is ridiculous and disheartening. Therefore, as a society, we must recognize their “ability”, “qualification” and “lifesaving experiences” of the nurses.
So, let us rethink how to equip and strengthen existing health care workforce to deliver the best possible healthcare for 1.25 billion people while respecting the caretakers (nurses) and giving the gazetted roles and responsibilities based on their knowledge, skills, and experience while ensuring they are growing in their career to realize their inner strengths and professional aspirations.
Nursing Practitioner in Midwifery:
On observation, it looks great and anyone can observe that some of the best minds have worked on this draft.
As it rightly puts out and stresses upon “clinical autonomy” which I would strongly recommend and it must happen across the different cadre of nursing professionals as per the foundational knowledge, skills and possessed competencies acquired by means of education and amount of time invested in the particular clinical stream or specialization.
To sum up, if the Governments’ intent and belief is to strengthen and enhance the ability of the nurses to cater the healthcare needs of 1.25 billion people, I kindly request to focus and brainstorm on following ideas;
- Nursing Practice Act: To regulate nursing professionals, to define the scope of a different cadre of nurses, to define the controlling acts, to define the roles and responsibilities, and gazetting them to fix the accountability.
- Healthcare Professionals Regulation Act: To regulate professionals, to define the scope of the different cadre of Health Professionals, to define the controlling acts, to define the roles and responsibilities, and gazetting them to fix the accountability. (Why I say this? Currently, Ayurvedic is practicing Allopathic and Allopathic practicing Modern Medicine and Quacks too have their contribution and as a citizen I am clueless who they are?)
- Health Insurance Act: broaden the definition of health insurance, take away exclusions, and increase the coverage like “Rajiv Arogyashree”.
- Primary Healthcare Delivery: Making more accessible rather mobile, delivered by nurses and managed by nurses.
- Healthcare Data: making it electronic easily accessible and shareable while ensuring confidentiality.
logonko sadrud banaawo!
Logonko sadrud banana hai to,
Arogya kaaryakartaonko sadrud banaawo!
Thank you,
Regards,
Basalingappagouda Patil (Bassu Patil)
Comments
Post a Comment