455 nursing seats in TN remain vacant

TNN | Nov 10, 2017, 07:14 IST



CHENNAI: The demand for nurses is increasing in the country with a rise in the number of hospitals, but nursing colleges in Tamil Nadu are staring at hundreds of vacant seats a day before the third and final counselling phase ends.

On Thursday , the state selection committee said 455 seats remained unfilled in more than 150 self-financing colleges."Every year, we close counselling after two phases. This year, we added a third phase because more than 900 seats were vacant after the second phase," said committee secretary Dr G Selvarajan. The third phase began on Wednesday and will conclude on Friday . Seats in all other paramedical courses such as physiotherapy , pharmacology and optometrics have been filled.

In an August 2016 report, the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry said there were 1.7 nurses per 1,000 population in the country which needs at least 2.4 million nurses.

Despite the demand, very Despite the demand, very few choose to become nurses.This, say nursing associations, is due to poor wages in many hospitals. Nurses across the city have been demanding regula risation of jobs and pay scales as per Supreme Court guidelines. C Elizabeth, who completed nursing at a Chennai-based college in 2016, is now a trainee at a tertiary care hospital. "I left my hometown to live in the city but I hardly get `15,000 a month.My parents have now told my sister to take pharmacy or allied health sciences," she said.

In several hospitals, nurses get `7,000 a month as starting wages, while many with more than two decades of service get less than `25,000. "This despite stressful long working hours," said senior nurse K Preethi.The 37-year-old mother of a 10year-old is now preparing for an examination that will enable her to work in the US. "These exams are tough to clear but going abroad is the only way we can earn money ."