Nursing

Indian Nursing Council syllabus permits arts stream students, upsets professionals and academics

R. Sujatha

CHENNAI,  JANUARY 20, 2020 17:41 IST

Experts said students without a background in science would not be able to cope with the rigours of a nursing course

The Indian Nursing Council’s (INC) draft rules to revise the syllabus has upset professionals. The syllabus, available on its website, has opened the doors to students from arts and commerce streams.

“The Council has created a curriculum, which is the purview of the university,” said A. Jayasudha, principal of PSG College of Nursing. She also wondered at the wisdom of permitting students without a science background to take up nursing.

Students of Nursing study anatomy, physiology and microbiology. They are expected to not only assist the doctor but also administer treatment (such as providing injections or dressing wounds) and must have thorough knowledge of the subject to be able to carry out their job.

The INC syllabus has also prescribed applied anatomy, physiology and microbiology. “The INC is talking of a bridge course but unless the students complete a year’s bridge course they would not be able to cope with the rigours of the course,” she pointed out.

A member of the State nursing council said the syllabus is decided based on the requirement of the local population. “The National Health Mission has proposed to permit nursing students lateral entry in to MBBS. How will students from non-science background cope with the course,” asked a nursing council member.

The Principal of Omayal Achi College of Nursing S. Kanchana has written to the State Nursing Council and the INC expressing her reservations. She pointed out that even paramedical courses such as pharmacy and physiotherapy accepted only science stream students at the entry level.

“If we have two different disciplines of entry level then planning the teaching, learning process and matching the learning experiences cannot be fulfilled. We will be creating only robots with incongruent theoretical information and not nurses with human values,” she wrote.

University officials pointed out that when it was difficult for even the science stream students to grasp the subjects students from other streams of education would have greater difficulty to study the subject in the limited time frame the course offered.

Sudha Seshayyan Vice Chancellor of the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University said there were lacunae in the draft rules that needed to be addressed. The issue would be placed before its Board of Studies, which has experts in nursing education before any decision is taken, she added.```