[Published on Dawn.com Newspaper on April 15, 2012]

PESHAWAR, April 15: Experts have expressed concern over shortage of nurses and have called for setting up more colleges to produce desired number of nurses to improve patients’ care in hospitals.

“There is one nurse for 31,579 patients in Pakistan against WHO’s recommendation of one nurse for 10 patients,” said Prof Najib ul Haq, principal of Peshawar Medical College (PMC). Pakistan has one doctor for a population of 1,516, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics, he said.

Speaking at a ceremony marking the inauguration of Rufaidah Nursing College (RNC) at the Kuwait Teaching Hospital (KTH) on Sunday, he said nursing profession had come of age now as nurses were given training in different branches of medical sciences.

Highly trained nurses, he said were required to improve healthcare delivery especially in rural areas where female patients felt hesitation to be seen by male doctors due to social taboos.

Dr Najib, also chief executive of the Prime Foundation, said that Rufaidah Nursing College would produce much-needed human resource in area of nursing who would then be serving people. He also urged that students should be given lectures on medical ethics so they could become good professionals and keep confidentiality of the patients while serving them.

Today while launching RNC, we are simultaneously holding closing ceremony of the series of refresher courses that were held over the period of one year as capacity building initiative by Prime Foundation in collaboration with the International Development and Relief Foundation (IDRF), Canada to upgrade the birth assistance skills of midwives from flood affected districts of Charsadda and Nowshera, he said.

Through these six-week refreshers with an intake of 16 midwives in each, a total number of around 130 midwives had been trained. Importantly most of them had their first opportunities of practical training, he explained.

Akhtar Bano, college’s principal, said she strongly believed the RNC would play a crucial role in its contribution towards quality nursing care not only in private sector but also in public sector.

The college has been granted recognition by Pakistan Nursing Council and is affiliated with Riphah International University, Islamabad. It is mandated with offering 2 years degree programme in BSc Nursing. A batch of 25 nurses (females and males) will be enrolled each year.

Prof Azmat Talat, Dean Postgraduate Medical Institute (PGMI), who was chief guest on the occasion, said opening of nursing institutions was positive development and this would ultimately lead to improvement in healthcare.