UP: 12 medical institutes selected for nurses' training

Greater Noida: UP State Medical Faculty supported by Jhpiego, a Johns Hopkins University affiliate, has initiated a programme to improve the quality of nursing education in the state with the aim to provide pre-service training to nurses and paramedics through mentor institutes for quality service and medical education.

Of a total of 700 nursing institutes in the state, 12 mentor institutes have been selected in the first phase. Some of these include Lala Lajpat Rai Memorial Medical College (LLRM), Meerut, Hillary Clinton Nursing School, Saharanpur, School of Nursing and Research at a private institute in Greater Noida and more.

The selection was based on parameters of continuing medical education (CME), ward condition and status, patient-nurse ratio, training and academic standard as per the Indian Medical Council.

“We have selected 12 institutes both government and private across the state in the first phase. Among them is one private institute from Greater Noida. They will act as mentor institutes for the improvement of quality of nursing education in UP,” said Dr Alok Kumar, secretary, UPSMF.

The state government is laying stress on improving the quality of nursing education.

“We recognise that quality nursing is the foundation on which a good health system is built. Therefore, the selection of 12 mentor institutes has been done in the first phase with more to join the list soon. The selection is based on rigorous process, adherence to the standard operating procedures and strict quality norms which have been examined by our experts over three months,” added Kumar.

According to Bhawna Bakshi from Jhpiego, training in these medical institutes will start from January or February next year and continue for a period of three-four months.

“For mentor institutes apart from government institutes, we are focusing on private ones also because 90% of nursing cadres come out of private institutions and medical colleges. It’s very important to ensure that the quality of education is the same across the state,” added Bakshi.