Diploma Course in Nursing to Discontinue Soon: Indian Nursing Council

The Union Health Ministry has decided to discontinue the diploma degree in General Nursing and Midwifery in India. On December 2nd, 2018, meeting resolutions for discontinuing diploma nursing degree were approved in National Health Policy. The ministry seeks action by 2022. It has amended that the General Nursing and Midwifery (GNM) colleges will be merged with the colleges offering B.Sc (N) degree in Nursing or they can get converted into College of Nursing offering B.Sc (Nursing) degree.

This step by the Indian Nursing Council will help manage the crisis of nurses with clinical skills by giving them proper updated education. The recommendations also suggested including an exit exam of B.Sc (Nursing) Course which is not currently there. The recommendation seeks usage of Information Technology (IT) to modernise Nursing courses and introduce distance learning for nursing courses also.

A government nurse has criticised the decision by saying that there are only 2 or 3 colleges in Tamil Nadu offering Nursing Courses and on the other hand, there are 1800 diploma seats in Government Medical Colleges in Tamil Nadu. Executing the resolution would be practically wrong as all the colleges would have to be converted into Nursing Colleges.

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However, a government nurse mentioned that it may not be practically executed in Tamil Nadu as there are around 1,800 diploma seats in 22 government medical colleges which have the School of Nursing. Then, all these colleges will be converted into Nursing Colleges but only 2-3 colleges are offering PG nursing courses.

For further discussions on the recommendations of the NITI Aayog, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Department held a meeting in February.

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