The minister said there are far fewer nurses in the country when compared to doctors. PHOTO: NNI
ISLAMABAD: A parliamentary panel has suggested that sub-offices of the Pakistan Nursing Council (PNC) should be established at the provincial level to deal with various issues of the nursing community.
The Standing Committee on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, which met under the chairmanship of Khalid Hussain Magsi, was briefed on Pakistan Nursing Council and Pharmacy Council.
The panel suggested that offices of the council at provincial level should deal with issues pertaining to registration, updated curriculums at bachelors and masters level, improving career structure for nursing and workforce planning.
MNA Shaista Pervaiz said that nurses face difficulties in getting themselves registered even if they have the requisite documents. She suggested that the registration system should be made more efficient.
Briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on reforms in the nursing profession, Minister for National Health Services Saira Afzal Tarar said for the first time in the history of the country a nurse with a doctorate has been appointed as the president of the PNC.
She said this measure has borne fruit since the new president has implemented the government’s reform agenda. Tarar told the panel that they were improving the registration cards issuing system with normal cases being finalised in just two weeks and urgent cases are being dealt with on the same day. Previously, it took three months to process cards under the normal procedure.
Backlog of registration cases has been eliminated as well.
PNC’s president Dr Rafat Jan added that they intend to further simplify the registration process by creating a mobile application.
Tarar added that they had launched an online registration system for first time in history and efforts are underway raise awareness among nursing professionals about the facility. She added that facilities such as free shuttle service from PNC to the main road, air-conditioned waiting rooms, separate washrooms for men and women, mineral water and free copying facility has been arranged for PNC visitors.
The minister said there are far fewer nurses in the country when compared to doctors. She lamented that the standards of nursing colleges too was not up to the mark, are also not up to the mark while they face a dearth of quality faculty. In this regard Tarar said the government was planning to give out scholarships to nurses in collaboration with the Higher Education Commission (HEC).
The committee recommended that a service structure and promotion policy must be devised for nursing staff.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 24th, 2016.
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