Connecting Classroom to Care: Building Workforce-Ready Nurses

"A nurse may be clinically competent, but without communication, empathy, and the right attitude, patient care will fall flat."

In this episode of #TheExecutiveEdit, Akash Kalp, Chief Business Officer at Emversity, sits down with Captain Bobby Ramesh, Group Director Nursing Excellence at Sarvodaya Hospital, to discuss one of healthcare's biggest workforce challenges: preparing nurses for the realities of modern patient care.

Drawing on more than three decades of experience across the Armed Forces Medical College, academia, hospital leadership, and international healthcare systems, Captain Bobby shares why nursing education must evolve beyond theory to build professionals who are confident, competent, and ready from day one.

The conversation explores:
- Why nurses are the true patient advocates, present 24x7 while doctors are in command
- The gap between theory-heavy nursing education and the realities of the bedside
- Why simulation labs and hands-on clinical training are no longer optional
- Communication, empathy, and critical thinking as the foundation of great care
- What India can learn from global nursing education and workforce practices
- How burnout and emotional stress go unaddressed, and why every hospital needs support systems for its nurses
- What separates a competent nurse from an exceptional one

More importantly, the conversation asks a fundamental question:
Are we preparing nurses to earn a qualification or to care with confidence from their very first day?

Whether you're a healthcare professional, educator, hospital leader, policymaker, or aspiring nurse, this conversation offers valuable insights into building a nursing workforce that's ready to meet the demands of modern healthcare.

#TheExecutiveEdit #HealthcareLeadership #NursingLeadership #HealthcareEducation #HealthcareWorkforce #WorkforceReadiness #Emversity

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

Lot of us miss that nurses are the first point of communication also to a lot of patients. What do you think? What are the role of effective communication and empathy and bedside manners in nursing?

SPEAKER_00 0:11

In nursing care or in patient care, you may be clinically very competent, you may be excellent in your competencies, but without good communication skills and empathy factor and the right attitude, your care will fall flat. Because a nurse has to be with the patient, understanding their concerns 24 by 7. While the doctors are in command, it is the nurses who execute the care plan.

SPEAKER_03 0:33

Hospitals today are multidisciplinary because there's safety protocols, there are hospital protocols. If you were a new nurse coming into hospital today, how do you prepare yourself better so that you are equipped to handle day-to-day stress at hospital?

SPEAKER_00 0:48

When in our hospitals we get we get a mixture of all these staff, we don't get a full-fledged 100% job ready staff at all. And unfortunately, in our country, it is more theory-based training which is given. Teachers also have limited clinical experience. I would suggest that the young nurses coming to the hospital, they need to be well equipped with the technology, especially EMR and the various nursing assessments. Staff, when they come to the hospital, we should be adaptable, we should be flexible. And if we have any questions, if you do not understand, please feel free to clarify.

SPEAKER_03 1:31

Hi all. Healthcare has a lot of departments, a lot of avenues, but one department or one trade, which is one of the most important, is nursing. When we go to hospitals, we see nurses all around. These are the people who are the first point of communication, first point of reassurance, and also the first point of patient safety. So we'll discuss today in detail about how is nursing evolving in India. As the modern healthcare evolves, is our nursing and the nursing education evolving to the same way? To join us in this discussion, I have an industry veteran, Captain Bobby Ramesh, who has spent over three decades in this industry. Captain Bobby Ramesh is the group director of nursing excellence at Sarvodya Hospital. She has worked across the industry and served in many prestigious organizations, including Apollo. As I tell you, she has over three decades of experience. That is more than the age of a lot of our listeners. And I'm really, really happy that she joins us in this conversation to talk about the nursing ecosystem, the healthcare ecosystem, and the excellence in nursing in India. So, Captain Bobbi Ramesh, welcome.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Thank you so much, Akash.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

Ma'am, I would first of all like you to talk about your set of experiences, where you have worked, how have you come so far, and talk to our uh listeners about how have you been able to come up the rank in the nursing ecosystem?

SPEAKER_00 3:15

Thank you, Akash, and it's my pleasure to be part of this conversation. Many of you all may not be knowing that I was an NCC cadet and I was added the best NCC cadet state level also at national level. And then I wanted to join the army to serve the nation. But those days, ladies were not allowed to join the army except in medicine and in nursing. That is when I thought why not I join the services. So I applied for the nursing and I got selected for BSC nursing at Armed Forces Medical College, and then from there on I was a bedside nursing for 10 long years, and bedside nursing made me uh very passionate about nursing care, and then I wanted to do something more for nursing. That is when I moved into teaching, and then I became a principal. I thought if the nurses are nurtured well and if they nurture their critical thinking skills and clinical expertise, we support them and they become excellent nurses. And then later I became a director nursing where I got first hand opportunities to streamline policies, protocols, and uh patient care strategies which improves the not only the patient satisfaction levels but also our staff satisfaction levels, also.

SPEAKER_03 4:40

As you told her, there was a time in your career when you thought uh, and I think you have been a uh strong force in advocating better quality of nursing in India. So, what was that point in your life when you thought just being uh in the nursing ecosystem is not enough? You really need to go towards training and mentoring, right? Because you have to love to give back to the society. Uh, what was that point in your life and uh how many years of work had you done by that time?

SPEAKER_00 5:09

So, by the time I became a principal, maybe by the time I was 15 years into the nursing, I strongly felt a lot more you can do. Lot more you can do in shaping the future nurses, and uh if they have very good mentors or preceptors and a good environment to learn, and uh there is a compassionate leadership, we can do a lot of good work in building the nursing fraternity in our country, and that is when I decided as a principal, when you are working, you are only managing the students, but then when you're moving into the administration side in the hospital, not only will you be managing the students because many hospitals have students also coming, colleges and nursing schools, they also will be coming there for clinical practice, but also the staff who are joining, the senior staff who are in the system, you can do a lot more in improving the patient care services, lot more in terms of the training and development of the nurses, and also a lot more in terms of contributing to their improving their clinical expertise.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Got it. When we talk about nurses, a lot of people think it's about clinical procedure, it's about ensuring that everything happens on time. Lot of us miss that nurses are the first kind of communication also to a lot of patients. Uh the comfort that a nurse can give to a patient is uh arguably more than what a doctor would give because doctor, the time spent is lesser. So, ma'am, what do you think? What are the roles of effective communication and empathy and bedside manners in nursing?

SPEAKER_00 6:54

Very good question, Arkash. In nursing care or in patient care, without whatever care you give, you may be clinically very competent, you may be excellent in your competencies, but without good communication skills and empathy factor and the right attitude, your care will fall flat. A good nurse and her team can connect well with their patients and their families who are very good in their communication skills and in their empathy towards their patients and families. So we give a lot of importance to this communication, empathy, and attitude of the staff. So we incorporate all these trainings in our hospitals during their induction training, during their on-the-job training as well.

unknown 7:39

Got it.

SPEAKER_03 7:40

I think that's a very, very important point, right? When we were also going through the whole nursing training, we understood communication will play a very, very important part. And specifically, uh, when you want to make global talent force, uh, English also plays a big role. So we also partnered with Cambridge University Press. Today we have a certification from Cambridge University Press for healthcare professionals that we are imparting in our education, and we've seen very, very good feedbacks across it. Uh, not just the students but also teachers, administrators have really really welcomed that. And man, when we talk about uh, as you told, right, we also talk about bedside manners, right? A lot of when I talk to a lot of healthcare leaders, they all talk about that bedside manners, the efficacy and effectiveness is not great in India. What are your views and and how do you think it will improve over time? Is it is it a training problem? Is it just a core skill problem? How do you address that?

SPEAKER_00 8:39

I feel that when somebody joins for nursing, nursing is a much lot of different than any other professional courses because a nurse has to be with the patient, understanding their concerns 24 by 7. While the doctors are in command, it is the nurses who execute the care plan.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 8:58

So, first of all, they are the ones who are the patient advocates being with the patient 24 by 7. When the doctors come, it is the nurses who will tell about the changes what they have seen, the improvements or deterioration what they have seen in the patient, what are the patient's preferences, all these they can only communicate better than anybody else to the doctors. So, this empathy factor, I feel somewhere for mostly it is inborn. Inborn also, one should have that uh ability to be empathetic. You should put yourself in other shoes first, and especially in a noble profession like nursing, when we say it is all about compassion and empathy, and secondly, it is about the training institute where the student was trained. Teachers play a very important role in nurturing and developing that, and teachers become the role model, and when they come to the hospital, it is your seniors who are role models for you. Good hospitals definitely have good training programs. Apart from the training programs, they have this preceptorship program where a new nurse joining the institution, they are assigned a preceptor or a mentor who are with them for the first three months, who take care of them, who teach them, who support them. So they play a very important role in improving this communication skills and the empathy factor. And nurses also have to hone it all said and done. The trainers can teach, the seniors can support, but the nurses also should be knowing that as a nurse, these are the qualities on priority they should be having if they have to give excellent patient care services. So they have to also hone their skills in these aspects.

SPEAKER_03 10:44

God, I think that brings me to my next question. The next question is uh when we talk to a lot of new nurses, right? Hospitals today are multidisciplinary, also large organizations, uh also very complex organizations because there's uh safety protocols, there are hospital protocols, and after COVID, it's gone even more professional. So, if a new nurse comes to a hospital, right? She generally everyone says they are very confused. How do they handle all of this? So, if I have to ask you, if you were a new nurse coming into hospital today, how would you prepare yourself better so that you are equipped to handle day-to-day uh stress at hospital?

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Thank you for that question, Akash. Um, even before I answer how they'll be able to handle this, I'd like to first list down the challenges what they would be facing. Because a new nurse would be coming from a reputed college of nursing, a new nurse may be coming from a metropolitan city, a new nurse coming may come from a tier three city, and a new nurse may come from a school of nursing where there is no skill lab, no parent hospital for them to learn. So, when in our hospitals we get we get a mixture of all these stuff. We don't get a full-fledged 100% job ready staff at all. And in the colleges, unfortunately in our country, it is more theory-based training which is given. Teachers also have limited clinical experience. Most of these teachers, after their degree or their PG, they are starting with teaching. So they also will be teaching, yeah, not on clinical uh expertise which they also are deficient with, and then these students do not have high fidelity or a you know moderate fidelity skill lab or a basic skill lab, even if in the tier 2 or tier 3 city, which you may be aware of. And in the hospital, now if you see hospitals are moving towards EMR, yeah, electronic medical, which college teaches them that these are the nursing assessments you have to do in the electronic medical record. They don't teach them. So when they come and then the equipment which they do use in the hospitals. Many hospitals now, if you see in the cities or even in tier two cities, many hospitals are tertiary care hospitals or quaternary care hospitals. Anywhere you go, you have liver transplant, kidney transplant, cancer care, and everything. Now, hospitals you see, we have Da Vinci robot, we have Merrill robot, every hospital are equipped with all the latest technologies. Doctors fly abroad to learn all these techniques, fellowships, everything, and they come back. These poor nurses, they are not at all exposed to all these, nor it is part of their curriculum. And then when they come to the hospital from day one, unfortunately, very few hospitals give them a month or a three month break for them to learn to get adjusted, to get oriented, and to get settled. Most of the hospitals, a new nurse coming from day one or day seven, they are put on the job.

SPEAKER_02 14:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

On the job, they are assigned six patients or eight patients like that. And then their challenges start. They are not able to adjust because of the pace at which they have to adapt themselves. They find it, they'll think, oh, in college we have learned. We will go, what our teacher taught us in the skill lab, the same things we have to do. What they are taught in the colleges are totally different from what they have to actually do at the bedside. So, even for our trainers in the hospital, it is so much of teaching them from the scratch, from A B, C D, what they have to do if they have to work in an ICU, what they have to do if they have to work in a ward, what they have to do if they have to work in an OPD or in an operation theater, and then training them on all these biomedical equipment. That is also a challenge because many of them have not even seen those, even an infusion pump or a syringe pump, they would not have seen. And nowadays, most of the medications are administered through infusion pump and syringe pumps. So, the the this adaptability to all these technology to the fast-paced environment because in the hospital in college it is a set environment. Today you go to a maternity lab, tomorrow you go to a child and learn. But when they are working directly in the patient care in the hospital, every day the patient's condition changes.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:24

Now also you heard a code blue and the water patient can suddenly collapse. The staff should have that critical thinking skill to proactively act upon that. Sure. And the staff also need to be collaborating with various departments. If staff is assigned a patient, I may have to contact the pharmacy for the patient's medication, I may have to contact the billing department for the patient's billing for which the patient is having some query, the patient may have a problem with the FNB service. The nurse is the first point of contact. Everything the nurse has to call and the doctors who come on rounds. One patient may have three, four consultants who will be taking care. So the nurse has to collaborate with all these interdisciplinary physiotherapists, will come, dietitian will come, clinical pharmacists will come. So, as an individual junior nurse, she has to collaborate with so many interdisciplinary team members, she has to work with all these technology, she has to adjust with the patient's demands and the relative's demand. Everybody are now Google Masters and everybody's demand. Previously, gone are the days when patients were coming to the hospital just for getting cured and going. Now they say, I am paying so much, my facility also has to be five stars if I'm paying uh money for that. So they their expectations and demands are high, and the poor nurse is the first point of contact, and she has to bear the brick bats also at times. So it became and just I'll give you an example. Recently, many new nurses joined in our hospital, and uh, many of them are posted in the ICU for just for observation. In our hospital, first three months it's only observation. After weeks, she cried and she went to the head of critical care nursing services and tells, ma'am, I do not want to work in the ICU. Every day I am seeing patients dying, I am feeling scared. And thirdly, the burnout, and that makes them feel so stressed. In India, unlike western countries, where nurses uh you know the average age may be 35-40. Here, the average age of a nurse is 21-22. The moment they finish GNM nursing and BSE nursing, they are they need to have that resilience, they need to have that maturity. So, it is hard on the nurses. So, I I would suggest that the young nurses coming to the hospital, they need to be well equipped with the technology, especially EMR and the various nursing assessments the teachers have to be teaching them in their curriculum. They need to have uh communication-related training. We have a set of training on IDET, various types of communication for handing over the patients to communicate with interdisciplinary team members, all these we have structured communication formats. So, teaching institutions should incorporate that during their student period itself. Structured communication with the patients, with the staff, and all that. The various formats available SBAR, IDET, and all that. So, they need to be trained on these, and then staff, when they come to the hospital, they need to know that we have to be adaptive. It will not be all that how we saw in our college. In the hospital, things would be different, and we should be adaptable, we should be flexible. And if we have any questions, that is one biggest blunder which a nurse does. As a junior nurse, the doctor comes and tells, do this, do this, do this, give this medicine to the patient. They write also and go, sometimes it may not be legible, or what order the doctor said this nurse doesn't understand. Yeah, if you do not understand, please feel free to clarify. Yeah, that is where many nurses hesitate and they presume they are scared to ask the question. No question is a silly question. Yeah, you need to feel free to ask the doctor or any member who's giving you instructions. Can you repeat it or can you please explain and then you carry out the order so that you do not make any errors in patient care because patient safety is at most in the hospital?

SPEAKER_03 19:19

True. Very important points, ma'am. And I think you touched upon one uh important point that globally the training and teaching is quite different, and you have seen global standards and exposed to global standards. What do you think lacks in our ecosystem, specifically coming to the global ecosystem, and how can we get it better? Right? Uh, one thing that you told was uh just the training uh simulation labs, but I would like you to elaborate more on how we can come on parity with global standards.

SPEAKER_00 19:49

I had the opportunity to work with you know international uh group of hospitals for which I was the nursing head for India Operation, the IHH group, and I had the opportunity to visit their hospitals abroad as well. And uh many of my students also are working abroad in uh Canada, US, Australia, New Zealand, so I keep interacting with them also. Now, Indian nurses are wanted globally, yeah, especially Kerala nurses and Punjabi nurses, Kerala nurses are wanted globally, and Indian nurses there's a lot of demand. I feel that demand is due to their compassion, their kindness, and willing to work hard, yeah, willing to learn. However, the same nurses, when they have to be absorbed or appointed in any country, they need to undergo a rigorous training. Some of them even do not pass for years. They keep preparing, preparing, giving exams, failing the exams, workers, caretakers till they pass the exam, and then finally, after a year or two, they get into working as a registered nurse. I always used to wonder why, because we are training them well, and then when they are going abroad, why they have to spend a lot of time for their coaching, and even during induction, they have to spend a lot of time apart from their um curriculum related training, communication exams, ILTS, STOFL or OET, they need to pass. Many of them fail in that, also. So I felt that in global uh scenario the training is more clinically oriented. Yeah, here it is a bit more theoretically oriented because many private colleges do not have any parent hospitals. Without parent hospital, you cannot train them for clinical uh posting. So abroad, I feel the training part they are paying so much of emphasis on uh clinical uh training, clinical uh training, and then secondly, the teachers also are having experience in the clinical side, it is not only. Teaching side, the teachers are having experience. Thirdly, the training is more structured, more structured and standardized. Here, if you see one group of hospital may be having one set of standards, another group may be having a different set of standard, standalone hospital may be having a different standard. Neither government has brought about any protocols related to that. So, everywhere the training structure, be it an on-the-job training or injection training, it is not a standardized one, they have standardized training. Thirdly, they have very good infrastructure for hands-on training. Recently, we had a speaker from Abu Dhabi Cleveland Clinic, she was presenting there the type of training they do there. We are nowhere near there with the type of simulation labs and with the type of the variety of training they give to the nurses, and it is mandate for the nurses working in the hospital, even in Gulf, every year their competency will be assessed, and only if they are through with that, they'll go to the next year. In Singapore, in Mount Elizabeth hospitals, I visited, they said that a nurse working in an ER definitely has to be certified in specialty. So abroad, they are paying very much of importance to specialty nursing. So a nurse, if she has to get promoted, she has to do a one-year specialty course in emergency nursing or a critical care nursing or a maternity nursing. Only then they'll be promoted, and accordingly, their allowances and things will be given. In Singapore, I was surprised to hear nurses from government are leaving government service to join the private service because they are paid better.

SPEAKER_03 23:43

Correct.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

And then many of the hospitals are sponsoring them for their higher studies. Thirdly, foreign countries have curriculum which are flexible for working nurses, also, if they have to update their qualifications. You have like for nurse managers who are managing the ward or the department, you have a master's in nursing administration, which is a distance education program. Here for nurses working in the hospitals, they want to update themselves. You do not have a master's in nursing in a nursing administration, which is a flexible program. So most such programs are there. Speciality nursing is given importance. Speciality nurses and nurse practitioners are encouraged abroad. In India, nurse practitioner courses have started since 2017 or 18, but even now, many states, the universities have not given approval for the nurse practitioner course. So, like this, many gaps are here, and uh abroad, I think they are give as they are giving importance to nurse practitioner, as they are giving importance to the curriculum, as they are giving importance to communication, and the most important one, critical thinking. Yeah, if you have to go to a US when you have to clear NCLEX, one subject is critical thinking. So, critical thinking skills are definitely assessed, and only if a nurse is found to have adequate critical thinking skills they hire here because of the shortage, because of the you know discrepancies in the demand and supply, hospitals are forced to take all the nurses without screening them and filtering them. So many nurses do not have this critical thinking skills, it is not their fault in their curriculum. It is not given that much of importance, and teachers are not training them or helping them improve their critical thinking skills, and also the last one is research. Yeah, uh, many countries nurses are into a lot of research programs in NHS and many other countries in India. Still, the research vertical is very weak. People wanting to do research, they are not so well, though government programs are there, government gives funding, but private hospitals, once they come, there is a clinical research for doctors vertical for nursing research. There is no vertical as such. And uh one thing which may sound very minor, but then that is very important. I recently was talking to my friend in New Zealand, she was working in a cardiac ICU. She was mentioning that it's totally different there when your patient dies, the doctor and the other nurses will come and hug you and ask you, Are you okay? And you you can take a day's leave also. Now, here a nurse is assigned two patients in the ICU. Every day you see deaths, it may be a young nurse, it is so much of stress, nobody bothers and pay importance to that uh stress factor and the burnout. At the end of the day, if you see a lot of such critical situations, lot of such deaths, we do not have that support system in most of our hospitals. Yeah, hospitals must have this counselor for the nurses. At least I am very happy to say that our MD ma'am, Mrs. Anshu Gupta, here. When I said key nurses are coming from very different backgrounds, everybody you talk to, 90% of them have problems. With all that problem, these young staff, be it a boy or a girl, and they're working in the watts and ICUs. How much of things they have to see, handle everything at the end of the day, they face burnout which we need to address. And I need a dedicated counselor for my nurses. Ma'am immediately called a psychologist and appointed her, and the psychologist comes here regularly, and my nurses get to uh meet uh meet her for counseling for therapy sessions because compassion compassionate listening is very important as nurse leaders. We need to be supportive and we need to be good listeners to our nurses so that you know their stress levels can be eased out.

SPEAKER_03 27:54

It's not an easy job, it's not easy, it's very stressful. Yeah, no, uh, very very important points. All of these, I'm coming uh to one point that you said specifically. You said somebody had come from Abu Dhabi Cleveland Clinic and talked about simulation setups, right? Today, when we go to let's leave the tier one few colleges out, but when we go to tier two colleges, we really find there is no setup for simulation, and students have no hands-on training on how to deal with even uh real life situations when they come to hospital. How important do you think are these simulation setups uh that students have to go through in the college so that they come better prepared? What are your views on these setups?

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Good question, Akash. And I think times are changing. 25 years back, no 25-30 years back, nobody had mobile phones. Yeah, I remember in 97-98 I had a small that a motorola something came. Who would know at that time that even in the remotest place or remotest villages, even a milkman or a vegetable vendor is will be using mobile and QR code now in our country. So it is possible. Yes, nothing is impossible. Now, olden days, ancient times, doctors and nurses were training on the patients. Yeah, patients may die also in your training on the patients. Things have changed so much. Of technologies have come up when we can train our students in a risk-free environment, yeah, they feel more confident, they feel less stressed because definitely a star student who has not touched the patient coming to the hospital. We as students we learned on the dummy and then we came to the hospital, we were doing on the patient. Yeah, we were confident because the training in AFMC was such our teachers would be there in the clinics before us, and they'll be there with us at every step to teach us. So we were confident. Every college it is not like that. And now some hospitals, some colleges have a simulations lab, and most of them do not have the lab. When they invented aeroplane, they didn't fly on that and you know did their training. So the pilot, the pilot, the first simulation lab was for the pilots, yes, so that you know it becomes a risk-free thing for them when they are flying an aircraft. Similarly, for nurses, also, nursing students also, it is very important to have simulation labs because students can be trained in a risk-free environment. Lot of scenarios because I have seen a lot of simulators, uh, high fidelity, moderate fidelity, many types of simulators where even the patient's disease conditions can be with the help of a QR code, you can you know fix it, and when you scan it, if a patient is having a COPD, how the last lungs, the you know, the sound from the the breathing sound will be the staff can auscultate in here. Many procedures they can do on that, like real-life scenario. Many situations can be given by the teachers, the students can train on them, they can retrain, they do not have to be stressed or oh, it is a patient, a live patient. Then, if something goes wrong, what will happen? They don't have to feel the stress, and they can become more competent in learning in such uh environment.

SPEAKER_03 31:16

Yeah, makes sense. You've been also part of you are in a unique position actually because you've been part of a lot of NABH assessment also, and you've traveled across the country, length and breadth of country to do that. Do you think that condition specifically in nursing do you think over the years is improving, has remained the same, uh, or is it going bad?

SPEAKER_00 31:37

That's a difficult question, actually. Now, um, apart from being an NABH assessor, I am also a principal assessor for NABH nursing excellence. So, the good thing is many hospitals are now coming up for nursing excellence certification, which was not the case earlier. That means management is giving importance to nursing, they want the nursing department to be assessed by NABH. Senior nurse leaders are going assessing them. You have excellence in nursing, the certification they give. Having said that, the numbers are minuscule. So when you go to hospitals in tier 2 or tier 3, some of the hospitals are good, some are very pathetic. Even in a city, it is the same condition. It is not like only in tier 2 or tier 3, it is pathetic. Tier 1, the infrastructure may be good, but the services or the type of nurses or you know who are there, they lack a lot of competency, they lack confidence level, and they very much lack in their communication skills. So I feel with the rising demand and expectations of the patients and families, of the doctors and other healthcare team members who are working with you, of the management, and also for your career growth, it is it is a must that nurses must hone their skills, they have to keep learning something new, yeah. And institutions might must support them in this learning, be it a college or be it a hospital, they need to have simulation lab facilities so that nurses can be trained on that and is coming. But with the number of hospitals mushrooming and with the type of nursing care, at times I feel really apprehensive as to how these things can be changed. But definitely, the nursing council can state nursing council as well as the INC can play a very important role in this by standardizing the curriculum for hospitals, the government, as well as because government also is having an NCO standards, and uh NABH is for private and government as well. So the government authorities and NABH authorities can come up with more such stringent standards of patient safety, wherein nursing is given a lot of importance, and the training for nurses is based on that, so that we can standardize and things can improve in our country.

SPEAKER_03 34:09

But the silver lining, as you told, a lot of hospitals are now paying interest. So, if today a new uh new nursing student, right, if she is aspirational, she or he is aspirational, wants to learn, goes through the good protocols, they have a long way, they actually can make a very, very good career, is what I understand. Because uh, at least a lot of hospitals, at least the top ones, are paying importance to that. Great. Last question. If you had to hire uh a nurse today, you personally had to hire, what would, if I give you all your wishes that will come true, what would that nursing professional be? What are the attributes that you think will make an ideal young nurse? Because this is for all the young people listening to our uh podcast, and they'll understand that what do they need to work on?

SPEAKER_00 34:54

I would want to my best nurse would be a young nurse who's smart, who's confident, who has got very good communication skills, has the right attitude, yeah, and who's proactive. Because a proactive nurse can go above and beyond, and such nurses uh of the patients' demands, and such nurses only patients want, such nurses the doctors like, such nurses your team members appreciate. You need to be proactive, you need to be adaptable and flexible because in the hospital lot of situations change rapidly. Instead of cribbing and crying, one has to be adaptable, one has to be flexible. The one who's very positive, who's quite empathetic, has good critical thinking skills, communication skills, and well groomed. Yeah, so these are the attributes I look in. My um, you know, good nurses, and we have many such nurses in my hospital. I'll just tell a small example. Yes, recently a patient was admitted in our uh pediatric ICU who was just a four year old baby and very critical. The baby was in the ICU for 15 days, and then the mother, then the baby was moved out to the ward, and after a week the baby got discharged last week. The mother, when I used to go during my regular rounds, I used to visit the baby and spend a few minutes with the baby. And uh when the baby was to be shifted to the ward, the mother was telling, I am a bit apprehensive how the nurses here the nurses are there one-on-one, full time in the ward, it will not be like that. So I want to be in the ICU only, and I said, No, it's okay in the ward, also we have very good nurses. And she said, I asked her, the nurses who are taking care of your baby hope they are providing good services. The mother says, All are giving excellent services, but one she mentioned the name of the staff, and she says she stood out among all the other nurses because she was more motherly than I was I am to my daughter. I may doze off in the night for five minutes, but she will not even blink her eye. If my daughter makes a noise, she was there within a second. So she was the most you know loud nurse by my daughter and by me as well, even though all the other nurses were present there. And I told this kid, When you're coming to the ward, my my office is near that. So don't you worry. If you have any issues, you can come to my office. Now, after two days, I was in the office in a meeting and I see a small hand waving through the door, and then to my surprise, I'm seeing this baby standing outside my door. She brought her mother, she says, Where is Bobby ma'am's office? I need to take her to show my room. So, this is all is about because of communication. Yes, I tell my nurses you spend five minutes communicating with the kid, communicating with any patient, they get more attached with you, they get to share their concerns freely, they feel at ease and they feel more comfortable. So, such nurses are the need of the hour, and organizations, including teaching institutes and hospitals and institutions like yours, who are helping in uh training of the nurses, can do a lot of good work in helping produce such good nurses so that for them it will be easy when they join the hospital. For us, it would be easy, yeah. Uh you know, to train them or to pose them, and for them also for their career growth, it would be easy when they have to go abroad or to any corporate hospital.

SPEAKER_03 38:49

I think very important point, uh Tulba, ma'am. I think all young nurses should definitely listen to this and imbibe by this, and the story is very, very endearing, ma'am. I think uh touches the right note because we all look forward to that uh warmth when it comes to caregiving and nursing. I think very, very enjoying story. Ma'am, I'll not take more of your time. I think uh thanks a lot for sharing all of these insights. These are these are words uh like gold for all the young professionals who are looking to make nursing as a career, and also you put out all the relevant points, right? Which is communication, which is confidence, which is intent, being upfront, asking the questions again and again, which is uh something that is not part of our Indian culture. When we go to classes, also we don't ask questions, we we remain silent. So I think all of these are very, very important points. You talked about simulation labs, getting the right certifications, getting the right training.

SPEAKER_00 39:42

One point I forgot is that I think when you see in arts colleges, they are having some dual degree. Yeah, when you do they can start get a degree in India, they can get a degree abroad, or they can get a certification abroad. I think nursing institutions also should come up with such ideas wherein when the students are learning here itself, they should be getting some certification wherein they are affiliated to some universities or some nursing institutes abroad, and some additional certification they can get which will add on to their qualifications and which will add value when they have to you know join go abroad.

SPEAKER_03 40:19

Yeah, we are trying exactly to do that. We have kind of integrated a lot of certifications, but thanks a lot for your time, man. And uh, this is the executive edit uh signing off. I am Akash and thank you, ma'am, for all the insights. We'll come back to you soon, very, very soon again. Uh with our next episode. Uh keep listening and keep watching us.

SPEAKER_00 40:37

Thank you so much.