Around 45,000 practising nurses in Karnataka, but none with national unique ID

The Indian Nursing Council (INC) has introduced the Nurses Registration and Tracking System (NRTS) to empower nurses with National Unique Identity Number (NUID).

This would enable states to know the exact number of nurses practising in a particular state and plan accordingly in the event of disease outbreaks. It would also ensure hassle-free work for nurses practising in other states. But in Karnataka, only around 13,000 nurses have been enrolled on NRTS and not a single one has the ID, even in Union government-controlled hospitals like NIMHANS.

The Karnataka State Nursing Council (KSNC) told DH following protests by private nursing school managements in 2017, the INC had to stop enrolling nurses for generating NUID as the managements wanted to use this as leverage to get the requested number of seats in private nursing schools.

The KSNC has requested INC to restart enrolling nurses for generating the IDs. In all, there have been more than 5.98 lakh NUIDs issued in the country so far as per the INC website though more than 10 lakh have been enrolled.

KSNC Registrar Usha Bhandari told DH that in 2017 INC staff went district-wise and enrolled nurses to issue the NUIDs.

"Though there are 35,000 to 45,000 nurses, only 13,000 have been enrolled for the NUIDs. None of the 13,000 enrolled nurses have got NUIDs. There are as many as 2.5 lakh nurses who have done their General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) course and another 1.4 lakh nurses who have done BSc Nursing and are registered with KSNC.

"Some 11,500 nurses are practising in other states. Another 10,000 nurses who have done BSc Nursing have gone abroad. We have written to INC to restart enrolling," said Bhandari.

A NIMHANS Nurses Welfare Association executive member requesting anonymity told DH, "There are many lecturers who are shown to be working in a college but are actually working abroad. There are several clinical instructors required to train nursing students. But nursing schools don't have required faculty. In NIMHANS, there are 750 nurses and all have enrolled for the NUID but none have got it."

Prof (Dr) Roy K George, National President, Trained Nurses Association of India (TNAI), said, "Nurses having NUIDs will enable us to create a live register of all nurses and midwives currently working in India. Twenty-three lakh nurses and midwives have registered with INC since 1947. Our estimate is 10 lakh-11 lakh nurses are available now in the country.

Others may have died, gone abroad or stopped working. Neighbouring Kerala has the highest registrations of over one lakh in the country for NUIDs."

Watch the latest DH Videos here: