Nursing Colleges Face Shortage of Students

The Vice-Chancellor of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, Dr. S. Ramananda Shetty said that although there is a great demand for nurses both nationally and internationally, the number of students gaining admission to Nursing Colleges is on the decline.

Dr. Shetty, speaking after inaugurating the Foundation Day celebrations of the JSS Nursing College and also the Ph.D Nursing Research Centre, said that there are 700 Nursing Schools, 329 Nursing Colleges and 100 Nursing Institutions in the State, which itself is a world record.

There are 8,000 B.Sc Nursing seats, out of which 4,000 are Government seats. But only 436 applications were received for these seats and the counselling has been postponed for this reason, he said.

There are many reasons for the decline in the number of nursing students. Growing craze for professional courses such as Engineering and Medicine and also the rise in the number of these colleges, may be one of the reason. The Government is concerned over this decline, he said.

Only the JSS Nursing College and Sajal Nursing College in Bagalkot, have maintained quality by their good infrastructure. Although, there is a demand for more than a lakh nurses, the necessary 'factories' for 'manufacturing' nurses do not exist. The students should be given requisite training for a period of 4 to 5 years. The students studying in Colleges that lack infrastructure, will secure 90% marks in practicals and only 35% in theory subjects, he explained.