Jaipur : Growing demands for accessible and affordable high quality healthcare and the need for improved services have made Nursing as one of the career options in the forefront for many healthcare professionals. However, with the lack of career options for Nursing candidates and issues related to nurse retention still remain to be tackled in India. On account of International Nursing Day, IIHMR University provides more directions and career options for Nursing professionals in the field of Health Management and Health Administration and Public Health with a study on ‘Number of healthcare professionals required across India’.

As according to Dr. SD Gupta, President, IIHMR University, “Hospitals and government institutions face many issues relating to nurse retention such as, job insecurity due to contractual nature of work, lack of career initiatives, low pay, in Indian healthcare sector, lack of infrastructure facilities, lack of educational programmes and lack of conducive work environment which result in nurses migrating to other countries. To retain this workforce, it is important to provide better and more career options in the healthcare sector.”

As per the Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) forecast, on the ‘Need of Healthcare professionals across India’, 1500 Hospital Management (HM) professionals are required in Karnataka’s private sector, over 10,000 HM professionals are required in AP-Telangana, around 12,000 HM professionals are required in Maharashtra, about 400 HM professionals required in Kerala and the demand for HM professionals with anticipated increase 10 times in the North-Eastern Regions of India. The Healthcare sector is also estimated to create employment opportunities for over 4 million people in the years to come.

Considering the need for professionally trained manpower in the field of Hospital and Healthcare Management, IIHMR University provides career option for nursing candidates with masters programme in Hospital and Health Management and Master of Public Health (MPH).