Date: 18.06.2023 at 8 PM (IST)
Zoom Link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/88151037734?pwd=YWVtMGJGQU93Y21odFJtZitJNElKdz09
Organisers: United Nurses Association India and Innovative Alliance for Public Health
Coordinator: Mr Mansing Jat, Research Nurse, CIMR, AIIMS, New Delhi, + 91 9582026437
Technical Advisor: Mr Govind Soni, Research Nurse, Oxford University Hospital, United Kingdom.
India is the second rank in nurse migration. Indian nurses’ services are well appreciated across the globe. In the last two decades, there are significant changes within the Indian nursing system which promoted nurses migration these include an increase in the number of nursing institutions, a global trade discussion on nurses migration, increased non-standard jobs in India, long-standing dissatisfaction with nurses in public health institutions, lack of advanced skill recognition and career options.
The COVID pandemic changed the community’s view towards health workers, and nurses were admired for their services. Nurses were burned out with the situation and forced nurses to exit the profession in the global north and most of the global south countries could not able to recruit and retain nurses due to the economic crisis.
Indian nurses’ destinations have been shifted from Gulf countries to the OECD countries. Demographic changes in high-income countries demand more care workers in long-term care services. WHO health workers report 2006 visualized the global challenges of health workers and initiated the WHO Global Code of Practices on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel. This code enlists countries with severe shortages of nurses and restricts their nurse’s migration. India was also one of those countries with high shortages of nurses till 2020. In 2020 India is not more on the crisis list henceforth federal and state governments are taking initiatives to promote nurses migrations. What are the issues and challenges nurses faced in those migrated countries? How could nurses decide on their country destinations? are also a major concern of ours.
In the last couple of years, Kerala state has signed a bilateral agreement with Germany, there was MoU with Japan for the exchange of nurses, and many state governments started to agencies to promote nurses migration. Indian Nursing Council developed a separate bridge course to promote nurses’ migration.
On one hand, all the major health reviews and policymakers report the shortages in India and another hand to promote nurse migration. Since the inception of the National Rural Health Mission, contractual (non-standard) recruitment of nurses increased. There are hardly any stakeholders to discuss this complex issue of nurse shortages in India, their migration and its repercussions. This webinar is an initiative by the nurses to read various reports and understand the issues and disseminate the same with their colleagues and also stakeholders. This session includes
Briefing WHO India report on nurses migration (Review of international migration of nurses from the state of Kerala, India) and its repercussions:
Mr Jibin T C Director, Reverso Healthcare
Germany as a new destination: Health System and Opportunities
Mr Sachin Konkani, Deputy Nursing Manager Intensive Care Unit, University Hospital, Heidelberg, Germany
What nurses should consider before deciding their destination countries: Lived experiences of nurses abroad
Dr Santosh Mahindrakar, Research Coordinator, IAPH (see author details)
Moderator
Ms Anurika Marques, Senior Nursing Officer, Dr RML Hospital, New Delhi
References
https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/33c30137-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/33c30137-en#
https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/43432
https://www.who.int/southeastasia/publications/i/item/9789290209966
https://www.giz.de/en/worldwide/41533.htmlhttps://oeffentlicher-dienst.info/tvoed/p/
Great Initiative, needed to be addressed on the top priority.
As it’s an area of great concerned.This issue is not new but more emergent or visible during and after covid.This area is the most ignorant by the policy makers, stakeholders,government also failure to provide respect, dignified and equal salaries many more unrest issues are pushing our nurses to leave the country.
It’s an irony that Indian nurses are appreciated and admired the most, around the globe but we lack in advocate them properly in all the fronts here in our own country.
In our country, there is always a lack of innovative and sensible visionary leadership/policymakers to address our issues on national and international plateforms and come up with the constructive and on ground solutions..
I must congrate the everyone and feel proud to be associated with the them.
Best wishes and congratulations to come up with a burning issue 💐