SHILLONG, April 26: The state government is targetting to double the number of sanctioned posts of nurses to absorb the growing number of surplus graduates who are currently unemployed.
Speaking to reporters after reviewing the human resource status of her department on Wednesday, Health Minister Ampareen Lyngdoh said the department is exploring all possibilities to help the surplus nurses.
She said that the government will engage with institutions and agencies to provide gainful employment to the nurses.
Referring to national standards, she said that a state must have 3000 plus sanctioned posts for nurses whereas Meghalaya has around 1,500+ sanctioned posts.
“We are looking to ensure that the number of sanctioned posts is doubled to bring it at par with national norms,” she said.
Lyngdoh admitted that there are limited employment opportunities for the nurses who pass out from the different nursing institutions every year.
“We have more nurses than the number of jobs available,” she said.
The minister emphasized on the need for the nurses to learn new languages which would help them land jobs in other states and countries.
“We will see if the option of foreign countries can be explored. We need to help them since we understand parents are taking education loans to help their children pursue nursing,” Lyngdoh said.
“If they can acquire language skills like French or Japanese there will be opportunities for them. I am told that there is a big requirement for nursing care, nursing aid in these foreign countries,” she said.
Talking about the number of doctors, she said that the state still needs a large number of specialist doctors.
While the national standard is about 300 plus, the state currently has around 177 specialist doctors, she said.
Lyngdoh also said that more than 50 doctors are enrolled in specialised courses which is adding to the shortage.
She further said that a dashboard will be created in this regard to better manage the human resource aspect in the health sector.
