| |19 NOVEMBER 2018HIGHERReviewBeing the second most populous country now and expected to be on the top of the list by 2030, India has one of the fastest growing health-care industries in the world. However, the country lags in health care spend, availability of infrastructure and qualified and competent workforce. In fact, healthcare infrastructure has always been one of the major concerns for us as a developing nation. While, the US has one bed for every 350 patients and Japan has one for 85, India has one bed for every 1,050 patients. That means the capacity is inadequate to meet even the existent needs of the Indian population. The ongoing expansion of healthcare infrastructure with both public and private sector investing in creating new facilities offering health services may solve this issue to an extent, but not completely. We need to understand that mere buildings and capital expenditure are not key determinants in the health delivery ecosystem. The appropriate utilisation and availability of human re-source in healthcare industry are an equal element. However, the shortage of qualified medical professionals remains as one of the key challenges of our healthcare system. At present, India's has a ratio of 0.7 doctors and 1.5 nurses per 1,000 people against the World Health Organisation's (WHO) global average of 2.5 doctors and nurses per 1,000 people. It is estimated that the country has a shortage of 1.54 million doctors and over 2.4 million nurses today to match the glob-al average. According to the data from the National Health Profile 2016, there are 2,958 institutions for general nurse midwives with an admission capacity of 118,406 students, 1,921 institutions for auxiliary nurse midwives with an admis-sion capacity of 54,859. Unfortunately, a large number of seats in these nursing colleges are falling vacant and the annual supply of nurses is dwindling. Fur-thermore, those who are qualified and skilled to perform better in this industry are eagerly looking for better-paid jobs in richer countries. With twin challenges of migration and shortage to be addressed, unequiv-ocally, the Indian healthcare education system would play pivotal role in the nation's well-being. For those who wish to be a part of this sector, we have come up with `Top 10 Promising Nursing Colleges in India 2018' ­ a list of educational institutions that have been producing skilled nurses who can be the backbone of the Indian healthcare system. This will give an explicit sense to the would-be nurses regarding choosing a fitting institution, which otherwise stands out as a puzzling task amidst the never-ending list of nursing institutes.COLLEGES IN INDIA - 2018TOP 10 PROMISINGHIGHER EDUCATIONReview
< Page 9 | Page 11 >